Xincan | |
---|---|
Geographic distribution | Guatemala |
Ethnicity | 16,200 Xinca people (2003 census) |
Extinct | 1970s (3 semi-speakers reported) |
Linguistic classification | One of the world's primary language families |
Subdivisions | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | xin |
Glottolog | xinc1237 |
Geographic distribution of the Xincan languages. Solid blue is the recorded range, transparent is the range attested by toponyms. |
Xinca (or Xinka, Sinca, or Szinca) is a small extinct family of Mesoamerican languages, formerly regarded as a single language isolate, once spoken by the indigenous Xinca people in southeastern Guatemala, much of El Salvador, and parts of Honduras.
They have also historically been referred to as Popoluca, or Popoluca-Xinca, Popoluca being a Nahuatl term for unintelligible speech.[1]