Maps of Sumu-Ulwa

Central American Languages


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Central American Languages

Source:   This map is recreated from the 'Teaching Materials' area of the Thesaurus Indogermanischer Text- und Sprachmaterialien (TITUS) project, a joint project of the Institute of Comparative Linguistics of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, the Ústav starého Predního východu of Charles University, Prague, the Institut for Almen og Anvendt Sprogvidenskab of the University of Kopenhagen and the Departamento de Filología Clásica y Románica (Filología Griega) de la Universidad de Oviedo.

Contact:   Jost Gippert, gippert@em.uni-frankfurt.de, TITUS

Usage Notes/Copyright Status:   Jost Gippert, Frankfurt a/M 1999-2003. This server provides teaching materials concerning Indo-European and Non-Indo-European languages. Those materials that can be downloaded via http can be used freely for teaching purposes, provided that they are quoted as sources and the name(s) of the editor(s) and the date of last changes are indicated. No parts of this document may be republished in any form without prior permission by the copyright holder.

Date Digitized:   15 June 2011

Map Description:
This map depicts the languages of Central America, spanning southern California to Colombia. Includes three language isolates as well as languages from the Mayan, Oto-Manguean, Chibchan, Uto-Aztecan, Choco, Totonacan, Arawakan, Yuman, Mazatecan, Misumalpan, and Mixe-Zoquean families. Also note that the Lenca language's classification is currently disputed.



Note: Scanned or downloaded images have been geo-registered for compatibility with our project interface. Slight imperfections are an inevitable result of the registration process. View original image(s) to see the unaltered map(s).

Chibcha-Misumalpan in Northern South America at the Time of Contact



Chibcha-Misumalpan in Northern South America at the Time of Contact

Source:   LINGUIST List "Chibchan: Composite 2008." The LINGUIST List MultiTree Language Database.
Data Source:  Kaufman, Terrence. 2007. "Meso-America". In R. E. Asher and Christopher Moseley (eds.) Atlas of the World's Languages: 82. Oxford: Routledge.
Date Digitized:   June 2009.

Map Description:
The areas pictured display locations of where Chibcha-Misumalpan languages were spoken when they were first encountered and knowledge of them was recorded. As specified by Asher and Moseley, the time of contact varied for each language; most of the coastal languages were first identified during the 16th and 17th centuries, although some languages in the interior of South America became known much more recently during the 20th century (Kaufman 2007).

This original map was made by vectorizing data from the MultiTree language database and the Atlas of the World's Languages.

Other resources related to this project:
This folder (Central and South America: Time of Contact) contains other maps showing linguistic subgroups and their time of contact. The maps may be overlaid on each other for a more complete picture.


Note: Scanned or downloaded images have been geo-registered for compatibility with our project interface. Slight imperfections are an inevitable result of the registration process.

The UNESCO Database of Endangered Languages (UNESCO)

The UNESCO Database of Endangered Languages

Map Creator:   LINGUIST List (Anthony Aristar)
Data Source:   Mosely Christopher. 2010. Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, 3rd edn. Paris, UNESCO Publishing, Online version. http://www.unesco.org/culture/languages-atlas/ (29 November 2010)
Contact:   llmaplinguistlist.org
Usage Notes/Copyright Status:   Used by Permission
Date Created:   29 November 2010

Map Description:
UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger is a database intended to raise awareness about language endangerment and the need to safeguard the world’s linguistic diversity among policy-makers, speaker communities and the general public, and to be a tool to monitor the status of endangered languages and the trends in linguistic diversity at the global level.

Degrees of endangerment
The map designates the degrees of endangerment as based on UNESCO’s Language Vitality and Endangerment framework.

This establishes six degrees of vitality/endangerment based on nine factors. Of these factors, the most salient is that of intergenerational transmission.

Degree of endangerment Intergenerational Language Transmission
safe language is spoken by all generations; intergenerational transmission is uninterrupted
>> not included in the map
vulnerable most children speak the language, but it may be restricted to certain domains (e.g., home)
definitely endangered children no longer learn the language as mother tongue in the home
severely endangered language is spoken by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may understand it, they do not speak it to children or among themselves
critically endangered the youngest speakers are grandparents and older, and they speak the language partially and infrequently
extinct there are no speakers left
>> included in the Atlas if presumably extinct since the 1950s




Note: Scanned or downloaded images have been geo-registered for compatibility with our project interface. Slight imperfections are an inevitable result of the registration process.