The official language of Nicaragua is
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
; however,
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...
ns on the Caribbean coast speak indigenous languages and also
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
. The communities located on the Caribbean coast also have access to education in their native languages. Additionally, Nicaragua has four extinct indigenous languages.
Languages
Spanish
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
is spoken by 90% of the country's population. In Nicaragua the
voseo
In Spanish grammar, () is the use of as a second-person singular pronoun, along with its associated verbal forms, in certain regions where the language is spoken. In those regions it replaces , i.e. the use of the pronoun and its verbal for ...
form is common, just as in other countries in Central and South America such as
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
,
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
,
Costa Rica
Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...
, coastal parts of
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
,
Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...
or
Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
. Spanish has many different dialects spoken throughout Latin America,
Central American Spanish
Central American Spanish ( es, español centroamericano or ) is the general name of the Spanish language dialects spoken in Central America. More precisely, the term refers to the Spanish language as spoken in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, ...
is the dialect spoken in Nicaragua.
;Phonetics and phonology
Some characteristics of Nicaraguan phonology include:
* /s/ at the end of a syllable or before a consonant is pronounced
* ''j'' (/x/) is a
* There is a clear distinction between /l/ and /r/, compared to Caribbean dialects.
* /s/, /z/ and in some cases /c/ (as in ''cerrar'') are pronounced as
English
English is also spoken among
expatriates
An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...
from the United States and Canada, and widely used by the tourism sector. On the Caribbean coast, due to the African and English heritage, in places like
Bluefields
Bluefields is the capital of the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region, South Caribbean Autonomous Region in Nicaragua. It was also the capital of the former Mosquito Coast, Kingdom of Mosquitia, and later the Zelaya Department, which was divid ...
,
Pearl Lagoon
Pearl Lagoon is a municipality that is often time called just Lagoon and was historically known as English Bank. It is located in the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region of Nicaragua. It is the most important town of the largest coastal lagoon ...
and on the
Corn Islands
The Corn Islands are two islands about east of the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, constituting one of 12 municipalities of the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region. The official name of the municipality is ''Corn Island'' (the English name is ...
, the English language is spoken in the form of
English creole
An English-based creole language (often shortened to English creole) is a creole language for which English was the ''lexifier'', meaning that at the time of its formation the vocabulary of English served as the basis for the majority of the creo ...
by the majority of the population there, coexisting with indigenous languages.
Indigenous languages
![BluefieldsSign](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/BluefieldsSign.jpg)
Several indigenous peoples on the Caribbean coast still use their native language, the main languages being
Miskito language
Miskito ( in the Miskito language) is a Misumalpan language spoken by the Miskito people in northeastern Nicaragua, especially in the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region, and in eastern Honduras.
With 700,000 speakers, Miskito is the most w ...
,
Sumo language, and
Rama language
Rama is one of the indigenous languages of the Chibchan family spoken by the Rama people on the island of Rama Cay and south of lake Bluefields on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. Other indigenous languages of this region include Miskito and S ...
. Other Indigenous languages spoken include
Garifuna
The Garifuna people ( or ; pl. Garínagu in Garifuna) are a people of mixed free African and indigenous American ancestry that originated in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent and speak Garifuna, an Arawakan language, and Vincentian ...
.
;Miskito
Miskito is a
Misumalpan language
The Misumalpan languages (also Misumalpa or Misuluan) are a small family of languages spoken by indigenous peoples on the east coast of Nicaragua and nearby areas. The name "Misumalpan" was devised by John Alden Mason and is composed of syllables ...
spoken by the
Miskito people
The Miskitos are a native people in Central America. Their territory extends from Cape Camarón, Honduras, to Río Grande de Matagalpa, Nicaragua, along the Mosquito Coast, in the Western Caribbean Zone. Their population is estimated at 700,000 ...
in northeastern Nicaragua along the Caribbean coast, especially in the
North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region
The North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region is one of two autonomous regions in Nicaragua. It was created by the Autonomy Statute of 7 September 1987. It covers an area of 33,106 km2 and has a population of 541,189 (2021 estimate). It is the l ...
. The Miskito language is the most widely spoken indigenous language in Nicaragua, this is because the Miskito people also hold the highest population of Indigenous people in the country.
;Mayagna
Mayagna (also known as Sumo or Sumu) is a Misumalpan language spoken in
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...
by the
Mayagna people
The Mayangna (also known as Sumu or Sumo) are a people who live on the eastern coasts of Nicaragua and Honduras, an area commonly known as the Mosquito Coast. Their preferred autonym is Mayangna, as the name "Sumo" is a derogatory name historicall ...
. There is wide dialectal variation, and sometimes the major dialects may be listed as separate languages.
;Rama
Rama is one of the
indigenous language
An indigenous language, or autochthonous language, is a language that is native to a region and spoken by indigenous peoples. This language is from a linguistically distinct community that originated in the area. Indigenous languages are not neces ...
s of the
Chibchan family spoken by the
Rama people
The Rama are an indigenous people living on the eastern coast of Nicaragua. Since the start of European colonization, the Rama population has declined as a result of disease, conflict, and loss of territory. In recent years, however, the Rama p ...
on the island of
Rama Cay
Rama Cay is an island in the Bluefields Lagoon on the eastern coast of Nicaragua. During the 17th or 18th century, the more powerful Miskito awarded the island to the Rama people in recognition of their assistance in fighting off the Terraba Indi ...
and south of lake
Bluefields
Bluefields is the capital of the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region, South Caribbean Autonomous Region in Nicaragua. It was also the capital of the former Mosquito Coast, Kingdom of Mosquitia, and later the Zelaya Department, which was divid ...
on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. The Rama language is severely
endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...
. Their language was described as "dying quickly for lack of use" as early as the 1860s. By 1980, the Rama were noted as having "all but lost their original ethnic language", and had become speakers of a form of
English creole
An English-based creole language (often shortened to English creole) is a creole language for which English was the ''lexifier'', meaning that at the time of its formation the vocabulary of English served as the basis for the majority of the creo ...
instead,
Rama Cay Creole
Rama Cay Creole is a Creole language spoken by some 800 to 900 people on the island of Rama Cay in eastern Nicaragua. It is based on Miskito Coast Creole with additional elements of the Chibchan language Rama and purportedly some elements of Eng ...
which is spoken by 8,000–9,000 people.
[Craig, Colette (1990). Review: Dictionary of the Rama Language. International Journal of American Linguistics 56.2:293-304]
Language revival
Language revitalization, also referred to as language revival or reversing language shift, is an attempt to halt or reverse the decline of a language or to revive an extinct one. Those involved can include linguists, cultural or community groups, o ...
efforts began in 1980–1981 under the
Sandinistas
The Sandinista National Liberation Front ( es, Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) is a socialist political party in Nicaragua. Its members are called Sandinistas () in both English and Spanish. The party is named after Augusto Cé ...
however, they were not successful.
The fieldwork for the first dictionary of Rama was done during this time by Robin Schneider, a graduate student from the
University of Berlin
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...
. In 1992, only approximately 36 fluent speakers could be found among an ethnic population of 649 individuals in 1992, of whom only a few scattered individuals live outside Nicaragua. The number of speakers on Rama Cay island was only 4 in 1992, due to language shift to English that engendered
Rama Cay Creole
Rama Cay Creole is a Creole language spoken by some 800 to 900 people on the island of Rama Cay in eastern Nicaragua. It is based on Miskito Coast Creole with additional elements of the Chibchan language Rama and purportedly some elements of Eng ...
.
;Nicaraguan Sign Language
Nicaraguan Sign Language
Nicaraguan Sign Language (ISN; es, Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua) is a form of sign language which developed spontaneously among deaf children in a number of schools in Nicaragua in the 1980s. It is of particular interest to linguists as it off ...
has been of particular interest to
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
s as one of the few languages whose birth was recorded.
Minority languages
Nicaragua has many minority groups. Many
ethnic group
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
s in Nicaragua, such as the
Chinese Nicaraguan
Chinese Nicaraguans (; es, Sino-nicaragüenses) are Nicaraguans of Chinese ancestry who immigrated to or born in Nicaragua. They are part of the Chinese diaspora.
Chinese people first arrived in Nicaragua's Caribbean coast in the latter part of ...
s and
Palestinian Nicaraguans, have maintained their ancestral languages while also speaking Spanish and/or English. Minority languages include
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
,
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
,
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
,
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
among others.
Extinct languages
Nicaragua has a total of 4
extinct language
An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers, especially if the language has no living descendants. In contrast, a dead language is one that is no longer the native language of any community, even if it is still in use, li ...
s:
;Nahuat
Nahuat
Nawat (academically Pipil, also known as Nicarao) is a Nahuan languages, Nahuan language native to Central America. It is the southernmost extant member of the Uto-Aztecan languages, Uto-Aztecan family. It was spoken in several parts of present-d ...
, also known as Pipil-Nicarao, is a dialect of the
Nahuatl language
Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan languages, Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in ...
, belonging to the
Uto-Aztecan language family
Uto-Aztecan, Uto-Aztekan or (rarely in English) Uto-Nahuatl is a family of indigenous languages of the Americas, consisting of over thirty languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found almost entirely in the Western United States and Mexico. The na ...
. This language was spoken by the
Pipil-Nicarao people, also referred to simply as the Nicaraos. Nahuat became the
lingua franca
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
during the 16th century. A hybrid form of Nahuat-Spanish was spoken by many Nicaraguans up until the 19th century.
;Mangue
The
Mangue language
Mangue, also known as Chorotega,Daniel G. Brinton. 1886. Notes on the Mangue; An Extinct Dialect Formerly Spoken in Nicaragua Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society , Vol. 23, No. 122 (Apr., 1886), pp. 238-257 is an extinct Oto-Mangue ...
, also known as Chorotega, consisted of several dialects spoken in western Nicaragua by Chorotega natives. Mangue is a language closely related to the
Chiapanec language
Chiapanec is a presumably extinct indigenous Mexican language of the Oto-Manguean language family. The 1990 census reported 17 speakers of the language in southern Chiapas out of an ethnic population of 32, but later investigations failed to find ...
spoken in Mexico, and is classified as belonging to the
Oto-Manguean language family. In the Monimbó neighborhood of the city of
Masaya
Masaya () is the capital city of Masaya Department in Nicaragua. It is situated approximately 14 km west of Granada and 31 km southeast of Managua. It is located just east of the Masaya Volcano, an active volcano from which the cit ...
, there are many Chorotega natives but the language that they speak is Spanish.
;Subtiaba
The
Subtiaba language
Subtiaba is an extinct Oto-Manguean language which was spoken on the Pacific slope of Nicaragua, especially in the Subtiaba district of León. Edward Sapir established a connection between Subtiaba and Tlapanec. When Lehmann wrote about it in ...
was an
Oto-Manguean language
The Oto-Manguean or Otomanguean languages are a large family comprising several subfamilies of indigenous languages of the Americas. All of the Oto-Manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but the Manguean branch of the ...
which was spoken on the Pacific slope of Nicaragua by the indigenous Subtiaba people (also sometimes referred to as Maribios, Hokan Xiu, or Xiu-Subtiabas). In 1925,
Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American Jewish anthropologist-linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States.
Sa ...
wrote an article based on scant evidence arguing for the inclusion of Subtiaba in his hypothesized
Hokan languages
The Hokan language family is a hypothetical grouping of a dozen small language families that were spoken mainly in California, Arizona and Baja California.
Etymology
The name ''Hokan'' is loosely based on the word for "two" in the various Hokan ...
group. Others have linked Subtiaba to the
Jicaque and
Tol languages of Honduras, but it is generally accepted that Subtiaba is an Oto-Manguean language that shares a close affinity with the
Tlapanec language
Tlapanec , or Meꞌphaa, is an indigenous languages of Mexico, indigenous Mexican language spoken by more than 98,000 Tlapanec people in the List of states of Mexico, state of Guerrero. Like other Oto-Manguean languages, it is tone (linguistics), ...
of Mexico. When Sapir wrote about Subtiaba in 1925, it was already very endangered or moribund.
;Matagalpa
The
Matagalpa language
Matagalpa is an extinct Misumalpan language formerly spoken in the central highlands of Nicaragua. The language became extinct in the 19th century, and only few short wordlists remain. It was closely related to Cacaopera. The ethnic group, which n ...
was a Misumalpan language spoken by the indigenous
Matagalpa people
The Cacaopera people also known as the Matagalpa or Ulúa., are an indigenous people in what is now El Salvador and Nicaragua.
History
The Matagalpa are one of the most important cultures in the historical development of the Nicaraguan territory ...
. In 1981, the population of the Matagalpa people was estimated at 18,000–20,000. The Matagalpa people live in the Central highlands of Nicaragua in the departments of
Matagalpa
Matagalpa () is a city in Nicaragua which is the capital of the department of Matagalpa. The city has a population of 111,258 (2021 estimate),Jinotega
Jinotega () (derived from Náhuatl: ''Xiotenko'' ‘place next to the jiñocuajo trees’) is the capital city of the Department of Jinotega in north-central Nicaragua.
The city is located in a long valley surrounded by the cool climate and Da ...
. Matagalpa became extinct in the 19th century; the eponymous people now speak Spanish.
Only a few short word lists remain. It was closely related to the
Cacaopera language
Cacaopera is an extinct language belonging to the Misumalpan family, formerly spoken in the department of Morazán in El Salvador by the Cacaopera people. It was closely related to Matagalpa, and slightly more distantly to Sumo, but was geograp ...
.
See also
*
Demographics of Nicaragua
References
External links
Explore Nicaragua Languageslanguage and people (es icon)
{{North America topic, Languages of