Huetar (Güetar) is an extinct
Chibchan language
The Chibchan languages (also Chibchan, Chibchano) make up a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian Area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa ...
of
Costa Rica that was spoken by the
Huetar people. It served as the ''
lingua franca'' for precolonial peoples in central Costa Rica, and went extinct in the 17th century. Only a few words in the language are currently known, preserved mainly in the names of various Costa Rican places, such as
Aserrí,
Barva
Barva is a district of the Barva canton, in the Heredia province of Costa Rica. The city is known for having a nice mix of rural and metropolitan landscape.
Toponymy
The name comes from Barvac or Barvak a cacique of the area around 1569, which ...
,
Curridabat
Curridabat is a district of the Curridabat canton, in the San José province of Costa Rica.
Geography
Curridabat has an area of km2 and an elevation of metres.
It is situated on the eastern border of the San José capital city, north of ...
,
Turrialba,
Tucurrique
Tucurrique is a district
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, sev ...
, and
Ujarrás
Ujarrás is a village and historical site in the Orosí Valley of Cartago Province in central Costa Rica, southeast of the provincial capital of Cartago. It lies near the northeastern bank of the man-made Lake Cachí, created by the damming o ...
.
The main source of studies regarding the language is the Costa Rican linguist Miguel Ángel Quesada Pacheco.
Bibliography
*
Chibchan languages
Extinct languages of North America
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