Corobicí is an extinct Chibchan

lect In sociolinguistics, a variety, also called an isolect or lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, registers, styles, or other forms of language, as well as a standard variety.Meecham, M ...

of Costa Rica. Many authors consider it a dialect of Guatuso; others consider it (or at least the words which are claimed to be recorded in it) as

Rama Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bein ...

. Mason considered it a variety of the

Guatuso language Guatuso is a canton in the Alajuela province of Costa Rica. Toponymy It is named for the region's original inhabitants, an indigenous tribe whose survivors are now known as the Maleku and remain as residents of the area. History Guatuso was ...

in a "Rama-Corobici" subfamily of Chibchan. The 1950 ''Handbook of South American Indians'' agreed that Corobici was Guatuso, but not with the subfamily classification, saying "Guatuso, with its variety Corobici or Corbesi, and Rama with its dialect Melchora, are obviously very different from each other and from other Central American Chibchan languages, and Mason (1940) was evidently in error in making a Rama-Corobici subfamily." Voegelin and Voegelin also consider it a variety of Guatuso. Tozzer considers the Guatuso descendants of the Corobici, whereas Samuel Kirkland Lothrop writes that "It is generally assumed that the Rama were once a tribe identical in language and speech with the Corobici." Constenla writes that the extant "small sample of" Corobici is actually "words from the dialect of Rama that was spoken in the region of Upala, Costa Rica, up to the 1920s. Really, not a single word of the language of the Corobicies (an extinct group) was recorded."

References

* J. Alden Mason, ''The native languages of Middle America'' (1940) and ''The languages of South American Indians'' (1950) * Charles Frederick Voegelin, Florence Marie Voegelin, ''Classification and Index of the World's Languages'' (1977) * Adolfo Constenla, ''Comparative Chibchan Phonology'' (1981) * Alfred Marston Tozzer, ''The Maya and Their Neighbors'' Chibchan languages Languages of Costa Rica Extinct languages of North America {{na-lang-stub