Choco languages

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Language family of Colombia and Panama

title: "Choco languages" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["choco-languages", "language-families", "indigenous-languages-of-central-america", "indigenous-languages-of-the-south-american-northwest"] description: "Language family of Colombia and Panama" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choco_languages" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Language family of Colombia and Panama ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language family"]

Field	Value
name	Chocoan
region	Colombia and Panama
familycolor	American
family	One of the world's primary language families
glotto	choc1280
glottorefname	Chocoan
child1	Emberá
child2	Waunana—?Cueva
child3	Unclassified:AnsermaArma Caramanta
map	Choco languages.png
::

| name = Chocoan | region = Colombia and Panama | familycolor = American | family = One of the world's primary language families | glotto = choc1280 | glottorefname = Chocoan | child1 = Emberá | child2 = Waunana—?Cueva | child3 = Unclassified:Anserma**Arma Caramanta | child4 = | map = Choco languages.png | mapcaption = ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/EduardoCoteLamusRioSanJuan1958.jpg" caption="Río San Juan]] (Choco, Colombia) in 1958 with some of the people speaking Choco languages"] ::

The Choco languages (also Chocoan, Chocó, Chokó) are a small family of Indigenous languages spread across Colombia and Panama.

Family division

Choco consists of two known branches and at least four unclassified languages.

The Emberá languages (also known as Chocó proper, Cholo)
Noanamá (also known as Waunana, Woun Meu)
Sinúfana (Cenufara) ?
Anserma
Caramanta
? Arma
? Cueva ****

At least Arma, Cueva and Caramanta are extinct.

The Emberá group consists of two languages mainly in Colombia with over 60,000 speakers that lie within a fairly mutually intelligible dialect continuum. Ethnologue divides this into six languages. Kaufman (1994) considers the term Cholo to be vague and condescending. Noanamá has some 6,000 speakers on the Panama-Colombia border.

Jolkesky (2016)

Internal classification by Jolkesky (2016):

Choko
- Waunana
- Embera
  - Southern
    - Embera Baudo
    - Embera Chami
    - Epena
  - Northern
    - Embera Katio
    - Embera Darien

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Guahibo, Kamsa, Paez, Tukano, Witoto-Okaina, Yaruro, Chibchan, and Bora-Muinane language families due to contact.

Genetic links between Choco and Chibchan had been proposed by Lehmann (1920). However, similarities are few, some of which may be related to the adoption of maize cultivation from neighbors.

Genetic relations

Choco has been included in a number of hypothetical phylum relationships:

within Morris Swadesh's Macro-Leco
Antonio Tovar, Jorge A. Suárez, and Robert Gunn: related to Cariban
Čestmír Loukotka (1944): Southern Emberá may be related to Paezan, Noanamá to Arawakan
within Paul Rivet and Loukotka's (1950) Cariban
Constenla Umaña and Margery Peña: may be related to Chibchan
within Joseph Greenberg's Nuclear Paezan, most closely related to Paezan and Barbacoan
with Yaruro according to Pache (2016)

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for the Chocó languages.

::data[format=table]

gloss	Sambú	Chocó Pr.	Citara	Baudo	Waunana	Tadó	Saixa	Chamí	Ándagueda	Catio	Tukurá
haba	abá			aba	aba	haba	aba	abbá	abba	abá
ome	ume			dáonomi	umé	homé	umé	ómay	tea	unmé
ompea	umpia			dáonatup	kimaris	hompé	umpea	ompayá	umbea	unpia
poro	poro		achiporo	púro	boró	tachi-púro	boró	bóro	buru	porú
tau	tau	tabú	tau	dága	tau	tau	dáu	tow	dabu	tabú	tapü
	kida		kida	kida	kidá	xidá	kidá		chida		chida
amoxina	mukira	umakira		emokoida	mukira	mukína	mugira	mohuná	mukira
pañia	paniá	pania	pania	dó	pania	panía	banía	puneá	panea	pánia
	tibua		tibuá	xemkavai	tupuk		tupu	tubechuá	tübü
pisia	pisiá	umantago	vesea	edau	vesea	áxonihino	umata	emwaiton	humandayo	ahumautu
edexo	édexo	hidexo	xedeko	xedego	edekoː	átoní	edexo	heydaho	xedeko	xedéko	hedeko
pe	pe	paga		pedeu	pe	pe	bé		pe
imama	ibamá	ibamá	imama	kumá	pimamá	imama	imamá		imamá
enatruma	halomá	halomá	sia	chókiera	umatruma	sía	ukida		enentiera
::

Proto-language

For reconstructions of Proto-Chocó and Proto-Emberá by Constenla and Margery (1991), see the corresponding Spanish article.

References

Bibliography

Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. .
Constenla Umaña, Adolfo; & Margery Peña, Enrique. (1991). Elementos de fonología comparada Chocó. Filología y lingüística, 17, 137-191.
Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Gunn, Robert D. (Ed.). (1980). Claificación de los idiomas indígenas de Panamá, con un vocabulario comparativo de los mismos. Lenguas de Panamá (No. 7). Panama: Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
Kaufman, Terrence. (1990). Language history in South America: What we know and how to know more. In D. L. Payne (Ed.), Amazonian linguistics: Studies in lowland South American languages (pp. 13–67). Austin: University of Texas Press. .
Kaufman, Terrence. (1994). The native languages of South America. In C. Mosley & R. E. Asher (Eds.), Atlas of the world's languages (pp. 46–76). London: Routledge.
Loewen, Jacob. (1963). Choco I & Choco II. International Journal of American Linguistics, 29.
Licht, Daniel Aguirre. (1999). Embera. Languages of the world/materials 208. LINCOM.
Mortensen, Charles A. (1999). A reference grammar of the Northern Embera languages. Studies in the languages of Colombia (No.7); SIL publications in linguistics (No. 134). SIL.
Pinto García, C. (1974/1978). Los indios katíos: su cultura - su lengua. Medellín: Editorial Gran-América.
Rendón G., G. (2011). La lengua Umbra: Descubrimiento - Endolingüística - Arqueolingüística. Manizales: Zapata.
Rivet, Paul; & Loukotka, Cestmír. (1950). Langues d'Amêrique du sud et des Antilles. In A. Meillet & M. Cohen (Eds.), Les langues du monde (Vol. 2). Paris: Champion.
Sara, S. I. (2002). A tri-lingual dictionary of Emberá-English-Spanish. (Languages of the World/Dictionaries, 38). Munich: Lincom Europa.
Suárez, Jorge. (1974). South American Indian languages. The new Encyclopædia Britannica (15th ed.). Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica.
Swadesh, Morris. (1959). Mapas de clasificación lingüística de México y las Américas. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
Tovar, Antonio; & Larrucea de Tovar, Consuelo. (1984). Catálogo de las lenguas de América del Sur (nueva ed.). Madrid: Editorial Gedos. .

References

Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho De Valhery. 2016. ''[http://www.etnolinguistica.org/tese:jolkesky-2016-arqueoecolinguistica Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas]''. Ph.D. dissertation, [[University of Brasília]].
Lehmann, W. (1920). Zentral-Amerika. Teil I. ''Die Sprachen Zentral-Amerikas in ihren Beziehungen zueinander sowie zu Süd-Amerika und Mexico''. Berlin: Reimer.
Pache, Matthias J. 2016. Pumé (Yaruro) and Chocoan: Evidence for a New Genealogical Link in Northern South America. ''Language Dynamics and Change 6'' (2016) 99–155. {{doi. 10.1163/22105832-00601001
Loukotka, Čestmír. (1968). "Classification of South American Indian languages". UCLA Latin American Center.
Constenla Umaña, Adolfo; Margery Peña, Enrique. (1991). Elementos de fonología comparada Chocó. ''Filología y lingüística'', ''17'', 137-191.

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