- Chorotega
Chorotega IPA| [tʃoro'tega] is the name of an indigenous people of
Honduras ,Costa Rica andNicaragua . The ethnic population number around 795 according to the ethnologue2000 survey [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=cjr] . The Chorotega language, which was a member of the Manguean branch of the Oto-Manguean linguistic family, is now extinct.The Oto-Manguean languages are spoken mainly in
Mexico and it is thought that the Chorotega moved south from Mexico together with the speakers ofSubtiaba andChiapanec well before the arrival of the Spaniards in the Americas.Some sources list "Cholutega" as an alternative name of the people and their language and this has caused some, for example
Terrence Kaufman (2001) to speculate that they were the original inhabitants of the city ofCholula , who were displaced with the arrival ofNahua people in central Mexico. The etymology for the nomenclature "Chorotega" in this case would come from theNahuatl language where "Cholōltēcah" means "inhabitants of Cholula". The Region south of Honduras derives it´s name from this nahuatl word, present dayCholuteca , and Choluteca City. Choluteca was originally inhabited by Chorotega groups.References
*Kaufman, Terrence, (2001) Nawa linguistic prehistory, published at [http://www.albany.edu/anthro/maldp/papers.htm website of the Mesoamerican Language Documentation Project]
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=cjr Ethnologue report on Chorotega]
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