Chibchan languages

The Chibchan languages (also known as Chibchano) are a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian Area, a geo-cultural region extending from Mosquitia in eastern Central America to northern Colombia, and encompassing parts of Costa Rica and Panama. The name derives from the now-extinct Chibcha or Muisca language, once spoken on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense present day Colombia. Recent genetic and linguistic evidence now indicate that the original nucleus of Chibchan languages and peoples might not have been in Colombia, but along the south-eastern coast of Mosquitia, where the greatest diversity of Chibchan languages has been identified.