Macro-Chibchan is a proposed grouping of the languages of the Lencan,

Misumalpan 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 ...

, and Chibchan families into a single large phylum (

macrofamily In historical linguistics, a macrofamily, also called a superfamily or phylum, is a proposed genetic relationship grouping together language families (also isolates) in a larger scale classification. Campbell, Lyle and Mixco, Mauricio J. (2007), ...

History

The Lencan and Misumalpan languages were once included in the Chibchan family proper, but were excluded pending further evidence as that family became well established. Kaufman (1990) finds the Chibchan–Misumalpan connection convincing, if as yet unsubstantiated, though Campbell (1997) finds it doubtful. The Xincan family was once included in Macro-Chibchan, but this is now doubtful. Constenla (2005) calls this proposed phylum ''Lenmichí'' (Lencan–Misumalpan–Chibchan) and provides 85 cognate sets which exhibit regular sound correspondences among the three families. He suggests that Chocoan may be related as well. Greenberg proposed a broader conception of Macro-Chibchan, one dismissed by linguists working on the families in question. It included

Yanomam Yanomaman, also as Yanomam, Yanomáman, Yamomámi, and Yanomamana (also Shamatari, Shirianan), is a family of languages spoken by about 20,000 Yanomami people in southern Venezuela and northwestern Brazil (Roraima, Amazonas). Subdivision F ...

Purépecha The Purépecha (endonym pua, P'urhepecha ) are a group of indigenous people centered in the northwestern region of Michoacán, Mexico, mainly in the area of the cities of Cherán and Pátzcuaro. They are also known by the pejorative " Tarascan ...

, and Cuitlatec in addition to Chibchan–Misumalpan–Xinca–Lenca. Greenberg (1987) included

Paezan languages Paezan (also Páesan, Paezano, Interandine) may be any of several Hypothesis, hypothetical or obsolete language family, language-family History of the State of Palestine, proposals of Colombia and Ecuador named after the Paez language. Proposals C ...

in a Chibchan-Paezan stock with Barbacoan, Chibchan, Chocoan, Jirajaran, and the isolates Betoi, Kamsá (

Sibundoy Sibundoy (Camsá: Tabanok "village") is a town and municipality in the Putumayo Department of the Republic of Colombia. The town existed well before the Spanish came in 1534. The Inca, under Huayna Cápac, conquered the local people in 1492 an ...

), Yaruro, Esmeraldeño, Mochica,

Cunza Kunza is an extinct language isolate once spoken in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile and southern Peru by the Atacama people, who have since shifted to Spanish. The last speaker was documented in 1949. Other names and spellings include ...

, Itonama, and Yurumanguí. An automated computational analysis (

ASJP The Automated Similarity Judgment Program (ASJP) is a collaborative project applying computational approaches to comparative linguistics using a database of word lists. The database is open access and consists of 40-item basic-vocabulary lists f ...

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 Chibchan and

. However, since the analysis was automatically generated, the grouping could be either due to mutual lexical borrowing or genetic inheritance.

Reconstruction

Constenla (2005) reconstructed five vowels and eleven consonants for Proto-Lenmichian, with the following reflexes:

Vowels

There are also a series of nasal vowels.

Consonants

References

Campbell, Lyle Lyle Richard Campbell (born October 22, 1942) is an American scholar and linguist known for his studies of indigenous American languages, especially those of Central America, and on historical linguistics in general. Campbell is professor emeri ...

(1997). American Indian languages: the historical linguistics of Native America. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . * * * Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). ''Language in the Americas''. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. * Kaufman, Terrence (1990). "Language History in South America: What we know and how to know more." In Doris L. Payne, ed. ''Amazonian Linguistics'', pp. 13–74. Austin: University of Texas Press. {{South American languages Proposed language families eo:Makro-ĉibĉa lingvaro