Salvadoran Lenca

Salvadoran lencan
Native toEl Salvador
EthnicityLenca people
Native speakers
with some semi-speakers remain and recovery projects.[1][2]
Lencan
  • Salvadoran lencan
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
Glottologlenc1243
ELPSalvadoran Lenca
Lenca is an extinct language according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
[3]
Map of El Salvador's Indigenous Peoples at the time of the Spanish conquest: 1. Pipil people, 2. Lenca people, 3. Kakawira o Cacaopera, 4. Xinca, 5. Maya Ch'orti' people, 6. Maya Poqomam people, 7. Mangue o Chorotega.

Salvadoran Lenca or Potón is a language of the linguistic family of the Lenca languages spoken in El Salvador; and of which two dialects have been described: that of Chilanga (extinct), and that of Guatajiagua; Other dialects may have existed in the past in the other towns where the Lencas lived in present-day El Salvador.[4]

According to Adolfo Costenla Umaña, the Salvadoran Lenca and the Honduran Lenca would have separated 2,295 years ago; time in which the archaeological site of Quelepa would have been founded.[5]

Salvadoran Lenca is of the small language family of Lencan languages that consists of two languages one of which is the Salvadoran Lenca and the Honduran Lenca. There have been attempts to link the Lencan languages to other languages within their groupings, but there has been no success.[6]

According to Salvadoran newspapers, only one native speaker remains in Guatajiagua, department of Morazán, named Mario Salvador Hernández; who learned the language from his grandmother, and who together with Consuelo Roque would write a learning booklet entitled: Poton piau, nuestro idioma Potón in conjunction with the Lenca Communal Association of Guatajiagua, and published in 1999; in total, said document would compile 380 words.[7][8][9][10] However, linguist Alan R. King, in his 2016 book titled in spanish Conozcamos el Lenca, una lengua de El Salvador (where he also used the Potón Piau primer as a reference), points out that (translating in english: "Today no one knows how to speak Lenca, although certain individuals have memories of—or have learned—some fragments of that now lost language. This type of partial knowledge is not even remotely close, in any case that we have been able to verify, to a real mastery of the historical language, whose disappearance dates back to the mid-twentieth century...".[1]

Currently in El Salvador there are rehabilitation projects for the Salvadoran Lenca to prevent its extinction.[2]

  1. ^ a b King, Alan R. (2016). Conozcamos el Lenca. Una lengua de El Salvador.
  2. ^ a b Aburto, Wilfredo Miranda (2023-12-13). "La herencia Lenca resiste en el oriente de El Salvador | Fotoreportaje 📸". Divergentes (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-03-28.
  3. ^ Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (Report) (3rd ed.). UNESCO. 2010. p. 13.
  4. ^ Hernández, Consuelo (1999). "Poton Piau. Nuestro idioma Poton. Comunidad indígena lenca de Guatajiagua, Morazán". Universidad de El Salvador. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. ^ Costenla Umaña, Adolfo (2002). Acerca de la relación genealógica de las lenguas lencas y las lenguas misumalpas. Universidad de Costa Rica. {{cite book}}: |periodical= ignored (help)
  6. ^ Campbell, Lyle. Glossary of Historical Linguistics. Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference poton was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Herrera, Alejandro (2024-01-10). "Guatajiagua, Capital del Barro Negro Artesanal". Guanacos (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-02-03.
  9. ^ Frederick Meza (9 August 2019). "El último lenca de Guatajiagua".
  10. ^ Hidalgo, Daniel (2016-05-24). "Guatajiagua: Revitalizando el Idioma Potón". Activismo Digital de Lenguas Indígenas (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-04-19.