Teribe language

Teribe
Pronunciation
Native to	Panama, Costa Rica
Region	In Panama: Naso Tjër Di Comarca, Bocas del Toro Province, Chiriquí Province. In Costa Rica: Limón Province, Puntarenas Province.
Ethnicity	Naso people
Native speakers	3,300 (2007)
Language family	Chibchan Isthmic Talamanca Teribe
Dialects	Teribe Térraba
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tfr
Glottolog	teri1250
ELP	Template:Endangered Languages Project
Linguasphere	Template:Infobox language/lingualist
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Map of the Naso (Teribe) people and language in Panama

Teribe (Template:Langx, Template:R/superscript) is a Chibchan language of the Talamanca subgroup spoken by the Naso or Teribe people. It is spoken primarily in the Naso Tjër Di Comarca and the Bocas del Toro Province of northwestern Panama and in the southern part of Costa Rica's Puntarenas Province, but is almost extinct in the latter. It is part of the Chibchan language family. There were about 3,000 speakers as of 2000, nearly all of whom speak Spanish as well.

History

The Teribe people were very difficult for the Spaniards to conquer, taking nearly 130 years for them to surrender. This was made possible by the relocation of a Teribe clan, the Térrabas, to modern-day Costa Rica in 1695, who were seemingly favored towards Christianization. Following this, the Teribes of Panama and the Térrabas eventually lost contact; oral tradition maintains that a group of Teribes were lost attempting to cross over to the Pacific. This event led to a significant turning point for the Teribe language. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the Térrabas gradually assimilated into greater Costa Rican culture, necessitating the death of the Teribe language there. By 2000, only three fluent speakers and "half a dozen" semispeakers remained of the language among the Térrabas,Template:R/superscript and the last fluent speaker among them died in 2003.Template:R/superscript

Status

As elucidated above, the status of the Teribe language among the Térrabas of Costa Rica is one of near language death. The general attitude towards the language was described by Juan Diego Quesada (2000) as one of "neglect", and that "the will [wa]s simply not there" to revitalize the Teribe language there. In contrast, the Teribes of Panama have preserved the language to a much greater extent, due to their isolation from the rest of the country, with 3,000 speakers of the language among them. Indeed, in the primary villages of Sieyic and Sieyking, the language still serves as a "symbol of cultural identity", and bilignualism with Spanish is healthy, whereas in other villages, Teribe has been completely displaced and is no longer spoken there. However, there are a number of signs that the language is threatened even in the larger villages; for instance, only Spanish is taught in schools, and many young people in Teribe communities move out of the language environment. The Teribe have a clear language policy, in that any linguists must obtain a permit from the king, and distribute any published works to the community, but it does not actually guarantee the survival of the language.Template:R/superscript

Classification

Teribe is a Chibchan language. It belongs to the Western branch of the Isthmic languages according to Adolfo Constenla Umaña (2012).Template:R/superscript

Phonology

Teribe has 23 consonantal and 13 vocalic phonemes.Template:R/superscript

Consonants

Teribe consonantsTemplate:R/superscript

		Bilabial		Dento-alveolar		Alveopalatal	Velar		Glottal
		unaspirated	aspirated	unaspirated	aspirated		unaspirated	aspirated
Stop	voiceless	p	pʰ	t	tʰ		k	kʰ
	voiced	b		d			g
Fricative	voiceless			s		ʃ			h
	voiced			z		ʒ
Affricate						tʃ
Nasal		m		n		ɲ	ŋ
Lateral flap				ɺ
Trill				r
Glide		w				j

Vowels

Teribe vowelsTemplate:R/superscript

		Front		Central		Back
		oral	nasal	oral	nasal	oral	nasal
High	tense	i	ĩ			u	ũ
	lax	ɪ				ʊ
Mid		e	ẽ			o	õ
Low				a	ã	ɑ

Writing system

Teribe alphabet (Panama)

a

ã

ä

b

ch

d

e

ẽ

ë

g

gw

i

ĩ

j

k

kw

l

ll

m

n

ñ

o

õ

ö

p

r

s

sh

t

u

ũ

w

y

z

Teribe also uses the ll with diaeresis centered over the letters.

Morphology

Nouns

Numeral classifiers

Similarly to other Chibchan languages of the region, Teribe uses a system of numeral classifiers, which can be numeral, interrogative, or indefinite. There are six classes of classifiers, animate objects, including humans, certain animals, and some body parts, round objects, wide objects, long and wide objects, and objects countable in plots.Template:R/superscript

Sources

• Gamarra A., Enrique; Villagra S., Inocencio (1980). Llëbo ñaglo lok kibokwogo ëre e lanyo = Vocabulario ilustrado teribe-español (in Teribe and Spanish). Instituto Nacional de Cultura & Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)

External links

• Teribe phonology