Chimila language
 | This article should specify the language of its non-English content using {{lang}} or {{langx}}, {{transliteration}} for transliterated languages, and {{IPA}} for phonetic transcriptions, with an appropriate ISO 639 code. Wikipedia's multilingual support templates may also be used - notably cbg for Chimila. (October 2025) |
| Chimila | |
|---|---|
| Ette taara | |
| Native to | Colombia |
| Ethnicity | 1,500 Chimila people (2009)[1] |
Native speakers | 350Â (2009)[1] |
Chibchan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | cbg |
| Glottolog | chim1309 |
| ELP | Chimila |
| Linguasphere | 81-EEA-a |
 | |
Chimila, known natively as Ette Taara,[2] is a Chibchan language of Colombia, spoken by the Chimila people, who live between the lower Magdalena River, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Maria and the Cesar River.[3] Chimila was historically grouped with the Malibu languages,[4] but then it was classified as a Chibchan language.
Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff considered Chimila to be one of the Arawakan languages, and would thus be expected to be like Tairona, one of the Chibchan languages.[5]
Phonology
[edit]The following is a preliminary sketch based on Trillos Amaya's (1997) grammar.
The Chimila language has 5 oral vowels /i, u, e, o, a/. These basic segments can also be realized as short, long, aspirated and glottalized.[6]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i iË iÊ° iË | u uË uÊ° uË | |
| Mid | e eË eÊ° eË | o oË oÊ° oË | |
| Open | a aË aÊ° aË |
The consonant inventory of Chimila consists of 23 phonemes. Voiceless stops are essentially realized as in Spanish, without any additional feature. On the other hand, voiced stops are prenasalized. The same is true for affricates. In addition, there is also a plain voiced velar stop and a plain voiced palatal affricate. Velar consonants also exhibit a labialized counterpart. The trill /ÉŸ/ is slightly preglottalized.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labialized velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | t | tÊ | k | kÊ· |
| voiced | dÊ | g | gÊ· | |||
| prenasalized | á”b | âżd | ᶟdÊ | á”g | á”gÊ· | |
| Nasal | m | n | ÉČ | Ć | ĆÊ· | |
| Fricative | s | x | ||||
| Approximant | l, ÉŸ | w | ||||
Plain voiced and prenasalized stops and affricates have been shown to contrast, e.g. kaË "breast", gaË "excrement" and á”gaË "wing, feather".[3] The most frequent type of consonant cluster is formed by a stop and /ÉŸ/. In general, lenis consonants, except for prenasalized ones, /x/, /ÉŸ/ and /w/, are realized as fortis whenever they follow the stressed syllable.[7]
Tone
[edit]According to Trillos Amaya (1997), Chimila also has two tones. In monosyllabic words ending in a long vowel, tone is contrastive, e.g. tĂłË "maraca" (rising tone), tĂČË "heart" (falling tone). In polysyllabic words, the distribution of tones is often predictable: if the syllable following the vowel that bears the tone starts with a geminated consonant or /r/, the tone is falling, however, if the following consonant is not geminated, then the tone is rising.[8][3]
Vocabulary
[edit]In early twentieth century, anthropologist Dolmatoff (1947) was able to collect an extensive sample of Chimila words. The following table shows some basic vocabulary items of the language:[9]
| gloss | Chimila |
|---|---|
| one | ti-tĂĄsu, nyĂ©ËËmun |
| two | (ti-)mĂșxuna |
| three | (ti-)mĂĄxana |
| four | mbrĂ nyĂ©Ë |
| head | hĂĄËËkra |
| eye | guĂĄËËkva |
| nose | nĂĄËË |
| ear | kĂștsaËkra |
| tooth | dĂ |
| man | tsĂĄËËkve |
| woman | yĂșnËkve |
| water | nĂË-taËkve |
| fire | ngĂ©Ë |
| earth | ĂËti |
| fish | mĂnËkrava |
| tree | kĂĄ, kĂĄx |
| sun | nĂnga |
| moon | mĂĄËma-su |
A provisional writing system has been developed by the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Some of the words mentioned above are now spelled differently, as shown in the following table:[2]
| gloss | Chimila |
|---|---|
| two | tiimujnaʌ |
| three | tiimajnaʌ |
| four | briiʌ yeeʌe |
| head | jaakra-la |
| tooth | dij |
| sun | diDŽDŽa |
| moon | maamasuʌ |
Toponyms
[edit]"Cesar", the name of both the Cesar River and the Cesar Department, is an adaptation from the Chimila word Chet-tzar or Zazare ("calm water") into Spanish.[10]
GuatapurĂ derives from the Chimila for "cold water", and provides the name of the GuatapurĂ River.[11]
Notes
[edit]- 1 2 Chimila at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- 1 2 NarvĂĄez Escobar, Sindy Paola (2020). "La aproximaciĂłn del lĂ©xico ette taara en el ciclo Moonate de la InstituciĂłn Etnoeducativa Departamental Ette Ennaka" (PDF). LingĂŒĂstica y Literatura (in Spanish). 41 (78): 352â383. doi:10.17533/udea.lyl.n78a14.
- 1 2 3 Adelaar & Muysken (2004, p. 75)
- â Loukotka, ÄestmĂr (1968). Classification of South American Indian Languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center. pp. 244â5.
- â Steward, Julian Haynes, ed. (1950). Handbook of South American Indians: Physical anthropology, linguistics and cultural geography of South American Indians. Handbook of South American Indians, United States. Vol. 6. Interdepartmental Committee on Scientific and Cultural Cooperation. pp. 187â88.
- â Trillos Amaya (1997, p. 66).
- â Adelaar & Muysken (2004, p. 76).
- â Trillos Amaya (1997, pp. 75â76).
- â Reichel-Dolmatoff, GĂ©rard (1947). "La lengua chimila". Journal de la SociĂ©tĂ© des AmĂ©ricanistes (in Spanish). 36: 15â50. doi:10.3406/jsa.1947.2358.
- â LABLAA - Luis Galvis: Don Gonzalo Archived 2009-09-14 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
- â (in Spanish) Marcos Fidel Vega Seña (2005), Vallenato: Cultura y sentimiento, U. Cooperativa de Colombia. p14.
References
[edit]- Adelaar, Willem F. H.; Muysken, Pieter C. (2004). The Languages of the Andes. Cambridge University Press. ISBNÂ 9781139451123.
- Trillos Amaya, MarĂa (1997). CategorĂas gramaticales del ette taara - Lengua de los Chimilas. Lenguas aborĂgenes de Colombia. Descripciones, 10 (in Spanish). BogotĂĄ: CCELA - Universidad de los Andes. ISSNÂ 0120-9507.
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