Chibcha language

For other uses, see Chibcha language (disambiguation).

Chibcha
Muisca or Muysca
Muysc cubun
Pronunciation	mʷɨsk kuβun
Native to	Colombia
Region	Altiplano Cundiboyacense
Ethnicity	Muisca
Native speakers	Few native speakers, in revitalization.
Language family	Chibchan Kuna-Colombian Chibcha
Dialects	Duit
Writing system	only numerals
Language codes
ISO 639-2	chb
ISO 639-3	chb
Glottolog	chib1270
Chibchan languages. Chibcha itself is spoken in the southernmost area, in central Colombia

Chibcha, Mosca, Muisca, Muysca (*/ˈmɨska/ *[ˈmʷɨska]), or Muysca de Bogotá is a language spoken by the Muisca people of the Muisca Confederation, one of the many indigenous cultures of the Americas. The Muisca inhabit the Altiplano Cundiboyacense of what today is the country of Colombia.

The name of the language Muysc cubun in its own language means "language of the people", from muysca ("people") and cubun ("language" or "word"). Despite the disappearance of the language in the 17th century (approximately), several language revitalization processes are underway within the current Muisca communities. The Muisca people remain ethnically distinct and their communities are recognized by the Colombian state.

Important scholars who have contributed to the knowledge of the Chibcha language include Juan de Castellanos, Bernardo de Lugo, José Domingo Duquesne and Ezequiel Uricoechea.

History

Distribution of Chibchan languages across southern Central and northwestern South America

In prehistorical times, in the Andean civilizations called preceramic, the population of northwestern South America migrated through the Darién 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 comprised the Muisca Confederation, a cultural grouping.

Spanish colonization

Main article: Spanish conquest of the Muisca

See also: Spanish conquest of the Chibchan Nations

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 as Diego Gómez have claimed that the variety of languages was much larger than previously thought and that in fact there was a Chibcha dialect continuum that extended throughout the Cordillera Oriental from the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy to the Sumapaz Páramo. The quick colonization of the Spanish and the improvised use of traveling translators reduced the differences between the versions of Chibcha over time.

Since 2008 a Spanish–Muysc cubun dictionary containing more than 3000 words has been published online. The project was partly financed by the University of Bergen, Norway.

Greetings in Muysc cubun

The following greetings have been taken directly from written sources from the 16th century when the language was alive.

• choâ - Hello, choâ mzone – how are you?
• choâ mibizine - To greet several people
• chogue – Fine!
• mua,z, choa umzone – What about you? (And you are well?)
• haspqua sihipquaco – Greetings!

Numbers

Numbers 1-10 and 20 in Chibcha

Main article: Muisca numerals

Counting 1 to 10 in Chibcha is ata, boza, mica, muyhyca, hyzca, taa, cuhupqua, suhuza, aca, hubchihica. 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; quihicha ata ("ten plus one") for eleven. Higher numbers were multiplications of twenty; guehyzca would be "five times twenty"; 100.

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 [black inside]" (species unknown)
chihiza	"vein" (of blood) or "root"
cho	"good"
chyscamuy	"maize [dark]" (species unknown)
chysquyco	"green" or "blue"
coca	"finger nail"
fo	"fox"
foaba	Phytolacca bogotensis, plant used as soap
fun	"bread"
funzaiomy	"potato [black]" (species unknown)
fusuamuy	"maize [not very coloured]" (species unknown)
gaca	"feather"
gaxie	"small"
gazaiomy	"potato [wide]" (species unknown)
guahaia	"dead body"
guexica	"grandfather" and "grandmother"
guia	"bear" or "older brother/sister"
hichuamuy	"maize [of rice]" (species and meaning unknown)
hosca	"tobacco"
iome	"potato" (Solanum tuberosum)
iomgy	"flower of potato plant"
iomza	"potato" (species unknown)
iomzaga	"potato [small]" (species unknown)
muyhyza	"flea" (Tunga penetrans)
muyhyzyso	"lizard"
nygua	"salt"
nyia	"gold" or "money"
phochuba	"maize [soft and red]" (species and meaning unknown)
pquaca	"arm"
pquihiza	"lightning"
quye	"tree" or "leaf"
quyecho	"arrow"
quyhysaiomy	"potato [floury]" (species unknown)
quyiomy	"potato [long]" (species unknown)
saca	"nose"
sasamuy	"maize [reddish]" (species unknown)
simte	"owl [white]"
soche	"white-tailed deer"
suque	"soup"
tyba	"hi!" (to a friend)
tybaiomy	"potato [yellow]" (species unknown)
xiua	"rain" or "lake"
usua	"white river clay"
uamuyhyca	"fish"; Eremophilus mutisii
xieiomy	"potato [white]" (species unknown)
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 Darién 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 department of Cundinamarca, of which Bogotá is the capital, and the department of Boyacá, with capital Tunja. These include curuba (Colombian fruit banana passionfruit), toche (yellow oriole), guadua (a large bamboo used in construction) and tatacoa ("snake"). 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 respected part of culture in Colombia.

As the Muisca did not have words for imported technology or items 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 (to about 150 children) is in the town of Cota, about 30 kilometres (19 mi) by road from Bogotá. The school is named Jizcamox (healing with the hands) in Chibcha.

Toponyms

Main article: List of Muisca toponyms

Most of the original Muisca names of the villages, rivers and national parks and some of the provinces in the central highlands of the Colombian Andes are kept or slightly altered. Usually the names refer to farmfields (ta), the Moon goddess Chía, her husband Sué, names of caciques, the topography of the region, built enclosures (ca) and animals of the region.

The Myska language

The Myska language is an artificial language based on colonial Chibcha, created by the Argentine Facundo Saravia. The pronunciation is based on the phonological proposal by María González for chibcha, although it has several innovations. Its spelling is also based on said phonology.

This language has received several criticisms from the chibcha cabildos and sectors of academia.

Alphabet and pronunciation

Phoneme	Letter
/i/	i
/ɨ/	y
/u/	u
/e/	e
/o/	o
/a/	a
/p/	p
/t/	t
/k/	k
/b~β/	b
/g~ɣ/	g
/ɸ/	f
/s/	s
/ʂ/	ch
/h/	h
/tʂ/	zh
/m/	m
/n/	n
/w/	w
/j/	ï

The myska alphabet consists of around 20 letters. The Muisca didn't have an "L" in their language. The letters are pronounced more or less as follows:

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"

between the vowels "y" it is pronounced [βw] – kyby – "to sleep"

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"

before a "y" it's pronounced [ɸw] – fyzha – "everything"

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"

before "y" it's pronounced [mw], as in "Muisca" – myska – "person" or "people"

in first position before a consonant it's pronounced [im] – mpkwaká – "thanks to"

n – "n" as in "nice" – nyky – "brother" or "sister"

in first position followed by a consonant it's pronounced [in] – ngá – "and"

p – "p" as in "people" – paba – "father"

before "y" it's pronounced [pw] as in Spanish "puente" – pyky – "heart"

s – "s" as in "sorry" – sahawá – "husband"

before "i" changes a little to "sh"; [ʃ] – sié – "water" or "river"

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 (or her, its) face"
a-ita becomes eta – "his base"
a-yta becomes ata – "his hand" (note: ata also means "one")

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

Structure and grammar

Subject

The subjects in Chibcha do not have genders or 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" (literally: "dog" "male" "one")
• to cha mika – "three male dogs" ("dog male three")
• to fuhuchá myhyká – "four female dogs"

Personal pronoun

Myska	Phonetic	English
hycha	/hɨʂa/	I
mwe	/mue/	thou / you (singular) – informal and formal use
asy	/asɨ/ or /as/	he / she / it / they
chié	/ʂi'e/	we
mié	/mi'e/	you (plural)

Possessive pronoun

The possessive pronoun is placed before the word it refers to.

Muysccubun	English
zhy- / i-	my
um-	your
a-	his / her / its / their
chi-	our
mi-	your (plural)

• i- is only used in combination with ch, n, s, t or zh; i-to = ito ("my dog")
• zh- becomes zhy- when followed by a consonant (except ï); zh-paba = zhypaba ("my father")
• in case of a ï, the letter is lost: zh-ïohozhá = zhohozhá ("my buttocks")
• m- becomes um- when followed by a consonant; m-ïoky = umïoky ("your book")
• zhy- and um- are shortened when the word starts with w; zhy-waïá & um-waïá = zhwaïá & mwaïá ("mi mother" & "your mother")
• when the word starts with h, zhy- and um- are shortened and the vowel following h repeated; zhy-hué & um-hué = zhuhué & muhué ("my sir" & "your sir")

Verbs

The Myska used two types of verbs, ending on -skwá and -suká; bkyskwá ("to do") and guitysuká ("to whip") which have different forms in their grammatical conjugations. bkyskwá is shown below, for verbs ending on -suká, see here.

Conjugations

Muysccubun	English
kyka	to do

Present tense or imperfect

Muysccubun	English
zhybkyskwá	I do or did
umbkyskwá	you (singular) do or did
abkyskwá	he / she / it does or did
chibkyskwá	we do/did
mibkyskwá	you do/did
abkyskwá	they do/did

Perfect and pluperfect

Muysccubun	English
zhybky	I did or have done
umbky	you (singular) did or " "
abky	he / she / it did or has done
chibky	we did or have done
mibky	you did or " "
abky	they did or " "

Future tense

Muysccubun	English
zhybkyngá	I shall do
umbkyngá	you will do
abkyngá	he / she / it " "
chibkyngá	we shall do
mibkyngá	you will do
abkyngá	they " "

Imperatives

Muysccubun	English
kyû	do (singular)
kyuua	do (plural)

Volitive modality

Myska	English
chakyia	may I do
makyia	may you do
kyia	may he / she / it do
chikyia	may we do
mikyia	may you do
kyia	may they do

Criticism from the chibcha cabildos

This constructed language has raised several concerns on the part of the Chibcha groups recognized by the Colombian State due to accusations of cultural appropriation and for displaying itself as a living native language despite the fact that the Chibchas lost their language perhaps since the 18th century, so that there are no native speakers today. Another concern of the Chibcha councils is the commercialization of their linguistic heritage through courses or talks at public events, schools, squares and other places, whose members present themselves as legitimate representatives of the current Chibchas, or as their direct descendants. With these and other activities they raise money, including from national institutions and international organizations on behalf of the Chibcha and their revitalization, using the constructed language as an instrument to demonstrate their progress and legitimacy. On the other hand, the use of myska in social networks and public events has generated the feeling that Chibcha has been a language that has survived uninterruptedly since pre-Hispanic times, ignoring the historical process of acculturation and the struggle ancestral of the councils for the communal ownership of their lands, for the recognition of their identity by the State and against the exclusion and poverty to which the members and ancestors of the Chibcha councilors have been subject.

Criticism from academia

This neo-language has also been involved in different academic controversies because on many occasions Myska is presented to the public as a natural language or, in the best of cases, as the closest approximation to the language spoken by the Chibchas, despite that its phonology, spelling, grammar, and even vocabulary, have not developed naturally but rather based on ancient writings, which is why its consistency and distance from the spelling of known linguistic sources is questioned. The presentation of this reconstructed language as an almost faithful approximation to the original or equivalent to the colony's Chibcha has aroused the following criticism:

• The creation of alternative vocabularies and grammars to the colonial sources distances the unsuspecting public from the true colonial linguistic sources, the main source of chibcha.
• It is a personalist proposal that does not allow criticism and from which other positions have been denigrated.
• The new spelling reveals an obvious contradiction, how can a spelling be created if it cannot be contrasted or verified with native speakers or audio records that support it.
• One of the biggest controversies is the prosody of the language. Academics such as Diego Gómez have stated that the pronunciation of several Myska words do not correspond in almost any case to the reconstructions carried out by him and his team based on the comparative method. Furthermore, the muisquisms, words of Chibcha origin that were adapted to the Spanish of the area, are reinterpreted and pronounced differently than they have been traditionally pronounced. For example, the Muisquism 'cuba' (youngest son), is written kuhubá and pronounced [kuhu'baa], even though the inhabitants of Cundinamarca and Boyacá have traditionally pronounced it ['kuba].
• The use of this artificial language is part of a political agenda that seeks to highlight the relationship between oppressor and oppressed, although its disseminators are mostly privileged white-mestizo people with a high level of education, who have undertaken a process of re-ethnicization, ignoring the traditional authorities and organizations of the indigenous councils recognized by the Colombian State.

See also

• Quechua
• Spanish conquest of the Chibchan Nations
• Muisca numerals, calendar

References

Bibliography

• Casilimas Rojas, Clara Inés (2005). "Expresión de la modalidad en la lengua uwa" (PDF). Amerindia (in Spanish). 29/30: 247–262. Retrieved 2016-07-11.
• Gamboa Mendoza, Jorge (2016). Los muiscas, grupos indígenas del Nuevo Reino de Granada. Una nueva propuesta sobre su organizacíon socio-política y su evolucíon en el siglo XVI [The Muisca, indigenous groups of the New Kingdom of Granada. A new proposal on their social-political organization and their evolution in the 16th century] (video) (in Spanish). Museo del Oro. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved 2016-07-11.
• Gamboa Mendoza, Gamboa (2013). El cacicazgo muisca en los años posteriores a la Conquista: del psihipqua al cacique colonial. Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia.
• Gómez, Diego F (2008–2022). "Diccionario muysca – español" (in Spanish). muysca.cubun.org.
• Gómez, Diego F (2013). Comparación léxica entre el muysca de Bogotá y el uwa central. Muysca: memoria y presencia. Bogotá (in Spanish). Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
• Gómez, Diego F (2020). "Los folletos muyscas de la Biblioteca Bodleiana (1603): los textos más tempranos de la lengua general del Nuevo Reino de Granada". Revista internacional de lingüística iberoamericana (in Spanish). 18 (36). Iberoamericana Editorial Vervuert: 195–216. doi:10.31819/rili-2020-183610. S2CID 256616900.
• González de Pérez, María Stella (2006). Aproximación al sistema fonético-fonológico de la lengua muisca (in Spanish). Bogotá Instituto Caro y Cuervo. pp. 53–119.
• Quesada Pacheco, Miguel Ángel; Rojas Chaves, Carmen (1999). Diccionario boruca – español, español – boruca (in Spanish). Universidad de Costa Rica. pp. 1–207. ISBN 9789977675480. Retrieved 2016-07-11.
• Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo (1947). "La lengua chimila" [The Chimila language]. Journal de la Société des Américanistes (in Spanish). 36: 15–50. doi:10.3406/jsa.1947.2358. Retrieved 2016-07-11.
• Uricoechea, Ezequiel (1854). Memoria sobre las antigüedades neo granadinas (in Spanish). Librería de F. Schneider.
• Saravia, Facundo Manuel (2015). Curso de aproximación a la lengua chibcha o muisca - Nivel 1 [Introduction course to the Chibcha or Muisca language - Level 1] (PDF) (in Spanish). Fundación Zaquenzipa. pp. 1–81. Retrieved 2016-07-11.

Further reading

• Arango, Teresa (1954). Precolombia: Introducción al estudio del indígena colombiano [PreColombia: Introduction to the Study of Colombian Indigenous People] (in Spanish). Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra.
• Botiva Contreras, Álvaro; Herrera, Leonor; Groot, Ana Maria; Mora, Santiago (1989). "Colombia prehispánica: regiones arqueológicas" [Pre-Hispanic Colombia: Archeological Regions] (in Spanish). Instituto colombiano de Antropología Colcultura. Retrieved 2016-07-11.
• Martín, Rafael; Puentes, José (2008). Culturas indígenas colombianas [Indigenous Cultures of Colombia].
• Triana, Miguel (1922). La civilización Chibcha (in Spanish). pp. 1–222. Retrieved 2016-07-11.
• Wiesner García, Luis Eduardo (2014). "Etnografía muisca" [Muisca Ethnography]. Central Andean Region (in Spanish). IV. Bogotá: Instituto Colombiano de Cultura Hispánica: 2. Retrieved 2016-07-11.

External links

• (in Spanish) Diccionario y gramática chibcha – World Digital Library
• (in Spanish) Muysc cubun Project – with Muysc cubun–Spanish dictionary
• (in Spanish) Archives and sources on the Chibcha language – Rosetta Project
• (in Spanish) Animated video about the last Muisca rulers – Muysccubun is spoken with Spanish subtitles
• Muisca (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)