Barbacoan

Barbacoan is one of the world's primary language families, comprising about 27 languages, many now extinct, spoken along the Pacific coast of Colombia and Ecuador and descending from a reconstructed Proto-Barbacoan. Its living members include Guambiano, Awa Pit, Cha'palaa and Tsafiki, grouped into a Northern branch, the Awan and Coconucan languages, and a Southern branch, the Cayapa-Tsafiki languages, with a disputed Canari-Puruha grouping also proposed. Some linguists connect Barbacoan to the Paezan languages or to a broader Macro-Chibchan grouping, though these wider relationships remain speculative.