Chibcha language
Chibcha is an extinct language of Colombia, spoken by the Muisca, one of the many advanced indigenous civilizations of the Americas. The Muisca inhabited the central highlands of what today is the country of Colombia.
The name of the language Muysc Cubun in its own language means "language of the people" or "language of the men", from muysca and cubun.
Important scholars who have contributed to the knowledge of the Chibcha language were Juan de Castellanos, Bernardo de Lugo, José Domingo Duquesne and Ezequiel Uricoechea.
History
In prehistorical times, in the Andean civilizations called preceramic, the population of northwestern South America happened through the Darien Gap between the isthmus of Panama and Colombia. Other Chibchan languages are spoken in southern Central America and the Muisca and related indigenous groups took their language with them into the heart of Colombia where they settled in their Muisca Confederation.Spanish colonization
As early as 1580 the authorities in Charcas, Quito, and Santa Fe de Bogotá mandated the establishment of schools in native languages and required that priests study these languages before ordination. In 1606 the entire clergy was ordered to provide religious instruction in Chibcha. The Chibcha language declined in the 18th century.In 1770, King Charles III of Spain officially banned use of the language in the region as part of a de-indigenization project. The ban remained in law until Colombia passed its constitution of 1991.
Modern history
Modern Muisca scholars have investigated Muysccubun and concluded that the variety of languages was much larger than previously thought. The quick colonization of the Spanish and the improvised use of traveling translators has reduced the differences between the versions of Chibcha over time.Since 2009 an online Spanish-Muysccubun dictionary containing more than 2000 words is online. The project was partly financed by the University of Bergen, Norway.
Greetings in ChibchaSaravia, 2015, p.13
- chibú - hello
- yswa - hello to more people
- chowá? - Are you good?
- chowé - I am / we are good
- haspkwa sihipkwá - goodbye!
Alphabet and rough pronunciation
a - as in Spanish "casa"; ka - "enclosure" or "fence"
e - as in "action"; izhe - "street"
i - open "i" as in "'inca" - sié - "water" or "river"
o - short "o" as in "box" - to - "dog"
u - "ou" as in "you" - uba - "face"
y - between "i" and "e"; "a" in action - ty - "singing"
b - as in "bed", or as in Spanish "haba"; - bohozhá - "with"
ch - "sh" as in "shine", but with the tongue pushed backwards - chuta - "son" or "daughter"
f - between a "b" and "w" using both lips without producing sound, a short whistle - foï - "mantle"
g - "gh" as in "good", or as in Spanish "abogado"; - gata - "fire"
h - as in "hello" - huïá - "inwards"
ï - "i-e" as in Beelzebub - ïe - "road" or "prayer"
k - "c" as in "cold" - kony - "wheel"
m - "m" as in "man" - mika - "three"
n - "n" as in "nice" - nyky - "brother" or "sister"
p - "p" as in "people" - paba - "father"
s - "s" as in "sorry" - sahawá - "husband"
t - "t" as in "text" - yta - "hand"
w - "w" as in "wow!" - we - "house"
zh - as in "chorizo", but with the tongue to the back - zhysky - "head"
The accentuation of the words is like in Spanish on the second-last syllable except when an accent is shown: Bacata is Ba-CA-ta and Bacatá is Ba-ca-TA.
In case of repetition of the same vowel, the word can be shortened: fuhuchá ~ fuchá - "woman".
In Chibcha, words are made of combinations where sometimes vowels are in front of the word. When this happens in front of another vowel, the vowel changes as follows:
a-uba becomes oba - "his face"
a-ita becomes eta - "his base"
a-yta becomes ata - "his hand"
Sometimes this combination is not performed and the words are written with the prefix plus the new vowel:
a-ita would become eta but can be written as aeta, a-uba as aoba and a-yta as ayta
Numbers
Counting 1 to 10 in Chibcha is ata, bozha, mika, myhyká, hyzhká, ta, kuhupkwá, suhuzhá, aka, hubchihiká. The Muisca only had numbers one to ten and the 'perfect' number 20; gueta, used extensively in their complex lunisolar Muisca calendar. For numbers higher than 10 they used additions; hubchikiká asaqui ata for eleven. Higher numbers were multiplications of twenty; gue-hisca would be "twenty times five"; 100.Structure and grammar
Subject
The subjects in Chibcha do not have genders nor plurals. to thus can mean "male dog", "male dogs", "female dog" or "female dogs". To solve this, the Muisca used the numbers and the word for "man"; cha and "woman"; fuhuchá to specify gender and plural:- to cha ata - "one male dog"
- to cha mika - "three male dogs"
- to fuhuchá myhyká - "four female dogs"
Personal pronoun
Possessive pronoun
The possessive pronoun is placed before the word it refers to.| Muysccubun | English |
| zh- / i- | my |
| m- | your |
| a- | his / her / its / their |
| chi- | our |
| mi- | your |
- i- is only used in combination with ch, n, s, t or zh; i-to = ito
- zh- becomes zhy- when followed by a consonant ; zh-paba = zhypaba
- in case of a ï, the letter is lost: zh-ïohozhá = zhohozhá
- m- becomes um- when followed by a consonant; m-ïoky = umïoky
- zhy- and um- are shortened when the word starts with w; zhy-waïá & um-waïá = zhwaïá & mwaïá
- when the word starts with h, zhy- and um- are shortened and the vowel following j repeated; zhy-hué & um-hué = zhuhué & muhué
Verbs
Conjugations
;Present tense or imperfect| Muysccubun | English |
| ze bkyskua | I do or did |
| um bkyskua | you do or did |
| a bkyskua | he / she / it does or did |
| chi bkyskua | we do/did |
| mi bkyskua | you do/did |
| a bkyskua | they do/did |
;Perfect and pluperfect
| Muysccubun | English |
| ze bky | I did or have done |
| um bky | you did or " " |
| a bky | he / she / it did or has done |
| chi bky | we did or have done |
| mi bky | you did or " " |
| a bky | they did or " " |
;Future tense
| Muysccubun | English |
| ze bkynga | I will do |
| um bkynga | you " " |
| a bkynga | he / she / it " " |
| chi bkynga | we " " |
| mi bkynga | you " " |
| a bkynga | they " " |
Imperatives">Imperative mood">Imperatives
;Volitive modality| Muysccubun | English |
| cha kyia | may I do |
| ma kyia | may you do |
| kyia | may he / she / it do |
| chi kyia | may we do |
| mi kyia | may you do |
| kyia | may they do |
Selection of words
This list is a selection from the online dictionary and is sortable. Note the different potatoes and types of maize and their meaning.| Muysccubun | English |
| aba | "maize" |
| aso | "parrot" |
| ba | "finger" or "finger tip" |
| bhosioiomy | "potato " |
| chihiza | "vein" or "root" |
| cho | "good" |
| chyscamuy | "maize " |
| chysquyco | "green" or "blue" |
| coca | "finger nail" |
| fo | "fox" |
| foaba | Phytolacca bogotensis, plant used as soap |
| fun | "bread" |
| funzaiomy | "potato " |
| fusuamuy | "maize " |
| gaca | "feather" |
| gaxie | "small" |
| gazaiomy | "potato " |
| guahaia | "dead body" |
| guexica | "grandfather" and "grandmother" |
| guia | "bear" or "older brother/sister" |
| hichuamuy | "maize " |
| hosca | "tobacco" |
| iome | "potato" |
| iomgy | "flower of potato plant" |
| iomza | "potato" |
| iomzaga | "potato " |
| muyhyza | "flea" |
| muyhyzyso | "lizard" |
| nygua | "salt" |
| nyia | "gold" or "money" |
| phochuba | "maize " |
| pquaca | "arm" |
| pquihiza | "lightning" |
| quye | "tree" or "leaf" |
| quyecho | "arrow" |
| quyhysaiomy | "potato " |
| quyiomy | "potato " |
| saca | "nose" |
| sasamuy | "maize " |
| simte | "owl " |
| soche | "white-tailed deer" |
| suque | "soup" |
| tyba | "hi!" |
| tybaiomy | "potato " |
| xiua | "rain" or "lake" |
| usua | "white river clay" |
| uamuyhyca | "fish"; Eremophilus mutisii |
| xieiomy | "potato " |
| xui | "broth" |
| ysy | "that", "those" |
| zihita | "frog" |
| zoia | "pot" |
| zysquy | "head" or "skull" |
Comparison to other Chibchan languages
| Muysccubun | Duit Boyacá | Uwa Boyacá N. de Santander Arauca | Barí N. de Santander | Chimila Cesar Magdalena | Kogui S.N. de Santa Marta | Kuna Darien Gap | Guaymí Panama Costa Rica | Boruca Costa Rica | Maléku Costa Rica | Rama Nicaragua | English | Notes |
| chie | tia | siʔ | chibai | má | saka | sö | sö | tebej | tlijii | tukan | Moon | |
| ata | atia | úbistia | intok | ti-tasu/nyé | kwati | éˇxi | dooka | one | ||||
| muysca | dary | tsá | ngäbe | ochápaká | nkiikna | person man people | ||||||
| aba | eba | á | maize | |||||||||
| pquyquy | tò | heart | ||||||||||
| bcasqua | yút | purkwe | to die | |||||||||
| uê | háta | ju | uu | house | ||||||||
| cho | mex | morén | good | |||||||||
| zihita | yén | pek-pen | frog |
Surviving words and education
Words of Muysccubun origin are still used in the departments of Cundinamarca of which Bogotá is the capital, and the department of Boyacá, with capital Tunja. These include curuba, toche, guadua and tatacoa. The Muisca descendants continue many traditional ways, such as the use of certain foods, use of coca for teas and healing rituals, and other aspects of natural ways, which are a deep part of culture in Colombia.As the Muisca did not have words for specific things in early colonial times, they borrowed them from Spanish, such as "shoe"; çapato, "sword"; espada, "knife"; cuchillo and other words.
The only public school in Colombia currently teaching Chibcha is in the town of Cota, about by road from Bogotá. The school is named Jizcamox in Chibcha.