Xincan languages

Xinca (or Xinka, Sinca, or Szinca) is a small extinct family of Mesoamerican languages; formerly, the language was regarded as a single language isolate. Xinca was once spoken by the Indigenous Xinca people in southeastern Guatemala, parts of El Salvador, and Honduras.

They have also historically been referred to as Popoluca or Popoluca-Xinca; Popoluca being a Nahuatl term for unintelligible speech.Solano y Perez Lila, Francisco de. Areas lingüísticas y población de habla indígena de Guatemala en 1772. Spain, Departamento de Historia de América de la Universidad de Madrid, 1969.

Classification The Xincan languages have no demonstrated affiliations with other language families. Lehmann (1920) tried linking Xincan with Lencan, but the proposal was never demonstrated.Lyle Campbell, 1997. American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013)Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013. ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013). also found lexical similarities between Xincan and Lencan. However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing or genetic inheritance.

The Xincan languages were formerly regarded as one language isolate. However, the most recent studies suggest they were indeed a language family.

Languages There were at least four Xincan languages, each of which is now extinct. Yupiltepeque was spoken in Jutiapa Department, while the rest were spoken in Santa Rosa Department. Campbell also suggests that the Alagüilac language of San Cristóbal Acasaguastlán may have in fact been a Xincan language.

Yupiltepeque: extinct by 1920. Once also spoken in Jutiapa. Jumaytepeque: discovered in the early 1970s by Lyle Campbell, spoken near the top of Volcán Jumaytepeque. This is the most divergent variety, and is not mutually intelligible with that of Chiquimulilla. All fluent native speakers of the language have died, but it may have some semi-speakers remaining. Chiquimulilla: extinct Guazacapán: extinct, some semi-speakers remain.

To these, Glottolog adds Sinacantán

Sachse (2010) considers all Xincan speakers today to be semi-speakers, with the completely fluent speakers having already died.

History Xincan languages have many loanwords from Mayan languages especially in agricultural terms, suggesting extensive contact with Mayan peoples.Mayan Loan Words in Xinca These come from both the Chʼolan and Quichean branches. According to Campbell, Xinca also has a "vast number of Mixe-Zoquean loanwords", suggesting contact with now extinct Mixe-Zoque varieties of the Guatemalan Pacific coast.

In the 16th century the territory of the Xinca extended from the Pacific coast to the mountains of Jalapa. In 1524 the population was conquered by the Spanish Empire. Many of the people were forced into slavery and compelled to participate in the conquest of modern-day El Salvador. It is from this that the names for the town, river, and bridge "Los Esclavos" (The Slaves) are derived in the area of Cuilapa, Santa Rosa.

After 1575, the process of Xinca cultural extinction accelerated, mainly due to their exportation to other regions. This also contributed to a decrease in the number of Xinca-language speakers. One of the oldest references concerning this language was presented by the archbishop Pedro Cortés y Larraz during a visit to the diocese of Taxisco in 1769.

Contemporary situation Xinca was most recently spoken in seven municipalities and a village in the departments of Santa Rosa and Jutiapa. In 1991, it was reported that the language had only 25 speakers; the 2006 edition of the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics reported fewer than ten. Nonetheless, of the 16,214 Xinca who responded to the 2002 census, 1,283 reported being Xinca speakers, most probably semi-speakers or people who knew a few words and phrases of the languages. However by 2010, all completely fluent speakers have died, leaving only semi-speakers who know the languages.

Distribution Xincan languages were once more widespread, which is evident in various toponyms with Xincan origins (Campbell 1997:166). These toponyms are marked by such locative prefixes as ay- "place of" (e.g. Ayampuc, Ayarza), al- "place of" (Alzatate), san- "in" (e.g. Sansare, Sansur), or with the locative suffixes -(a)gua or -hua "town, dwelling" (e.g. Pasasagua, Jagua, Anchagua, Xagua, Eraxagua).

Kaufman (1970:66) lists the following towns as once being Xinca-speaking.Kaufman, Terrence. 1970. Proyecto de alfabetos y ortografías para escribir las lenguas mayances. Antigua: Editorial José de Pineda Ibarra.

Yupiltepeque Jumaytepeque (Nueva Santa Rosa) San Juan Tecuaco Chiquimulilla Taxisco Santa María Ixhuatán Guazacapán

Sachse (2010), citing colonial-era sources, lists the following villages in Santa Rosa Department and Jutiapa Department as having Xinca speakers during the Spanish colonial era.

Guanagazapa (Guanagazapan), in Escuintla Department Guaymango Itiquipaque (also known as Atiquipaque or Nextiquipaque) Tepeaco Tacuilula Taxisco Guazacapán Chiquimulilla Sinacantán Nancinta Tecuaco Ixhuatán (Izguatlán)

Jumaytepéque Jalpatagua Jutiapa Comapa Yupiltepeque Atescatempa La Zacualpa Contepeque Achuapa Valle Tierra Blanca (parish of Tacuilula) Santa Ana (parish of Xinacantán) San Juan Mixtán (a trilingual village where Spanish, Nahuatl, and Xinca were spoken)

Phonology The phonological system of Xincan languages had some variance, as evidenced by the variations in recorded phonology exhibited among semi-speakers of the two remaining languages. The basic syllable structure is #(C)V(V/C) word-initially, but CV(V/C) word-internally.

Vowels It is generally agreed upon that the Xincan languages have 6 vowels. +FrontCentralBackClose Close-mid Open

Consonants These charts show the consonants of two languages, used by the final semi-speakers of the language.

+Jumaytepeque consonantsLabialAlveolarPost-alveolarRetroflexVelarGlottalStop/Affricateplain ejectivevoiced()Fricative Nasalplain glottalizedApproximantplain glottalizedTrillplain glottalized +Yupiltepeque consonantsLabialAlveolarPost-alveolarVelarGlottalStopAffricateplainejectiveFricativeNasalplainglottalizedApproximantTrill Many younger semi-speakers also used the phonemes /b, d, g, f, ŋ/ due to greater influence from Spanish.

Typology Xincan languages are somewhat polysynthetic and use nominative-accusative alignment. There are prefixes that act as person agreement markers on verbs, but possession markers on nouns. There are three verb classes: neutral (including all transitive verbs), unergative verbs (indicated by the suffix ), and unaccusative verbs (indicated by the suffix ). Antipassive verbs are formed with the suffix . The basic word order is VOS. Adjectives and articles precede nouns, while demonstratives and possessed nouns follow nouns. Alienable possession is indicated by prefixes, and inalienable possession by suffixes. Xinca has relational nouns which can also be used as prepositions when not possessed.

Xincan languages

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