Nicaragua Languages

Nicaragua Wiki Topics

Nicaragua Beginning Research

Getting Started Online Learning Record Finder Research Strategies

Record Types

Cemeteries Church Records Civil Registration Colonial Records Emigration & Immigration Online Genealogy Records Religious Records

Nicaragua Background

History Languages Maps Naming Customs Periodicals Social Life & Customs

Nicaragua Genealogical Word Lists

Spanish

Local Research Resources

Archives & Libraries Societies Local FamilySearch Center

In other languages: Español

Nicaragua

Languages

Description

The official language of Nicaragua is Spanish.
Nicaraguans on the Caribbean coast speak indigenous languages and also English.
The communities located on the Caribbean coast also have access to education in their native languages.

The main indigenous native languages used along the Caribbean coast include:

• Miskito
  • It is a Misumalpan language spoken by the Miskito people in northeastern Nicaragua, especially in the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region, and in eastern Honduras.
    
  • With around 150,000 speakers, Miskito is the most widely spoken of a family of languages of Nicaragua and Honduras that has come to be known as Misumalpan.
    
• Sumo or Mayagna
  • It is a Misumalpan language spoken in Nicaragua by the Mayagna people.
    
  • There is wide dialectal variation, and sometimes the major dialects may be listed as separate languages.
    
• Rama
  • Rama is one of the indigenous languages of the Chibchan family spoken by the Rama people on the island of Rama Cay and south of lake Bluefields on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua.
    
  • The Rama language is severely endangered as their language was described as "dying quickly for lack of use" as early as the 1860s.
    
  • By 1980, the Rama were noted as having "all but lost their original ethnic language", and had become speakers of a form of English creole instead, Rama Cay Creole which is spoken by 8,000–9,000 people.
    
• Garifuna
  • It is spoken along Nicaragua's Mosquito Coast
    

Nicaragua has many minority groups. While also speaking Spanish and/or English, many ethnic groups in Nicaragua, such as the Chinese Nicaraguans and Palestinian Nicaraguans, have maintained their ancestral languages. Minority languages include Chinese, Arabic, German, Italian among others.

Additionally, Nicaragua has four extinct indigenous languages:

• Nahuat
  
  • It is a dialect of the Nahuatl language, also known as Pipil-Nicarao, belonging to the Uto-Aztecan language family.
    
  • The Pipil-Nicarao people are also referred to simply as the Nicaraos.
    
  • Nahuat became the lingua franca during the 16th century.
    
  • Many Nicaraguans spoke a hybrid form of Nahuat-Spanish up until the 19th century.
    
• Mangue or Chorotega
  
  • It included several dialects spoken in western Nicaragua by Chorotega natives.
    
  • Mangue is a language closely linked to the Chiapanec language spoken in Mexico.
    
  • It is categorized as belonging to the Oto-Manguean language family.[7]
    
  • In the Monimbó neighborhood of the city of Masaya, there are many Chorotega natives however, the language that they speak is Spanish.
    
• Subtiaba
  
  • This was an Oto-Manguean language which was spoken on the Pacific slope of Nicaragua by the indigenous Subtiaba people (also sometimes referred to as Maribios, Hokan Xiu, or Xiu-Subtiabas).
    
• Matagalpa
  
  • It was a Misumalpan language spoken by the indigenous Matagalpa people.
    
  • In 1981, the population of the Matagalpa people was estimated at 18,000–20,000.
    
  • The Matagalpa people live in the Central highlands of Nicaragua in the departments of Matagalpa and Jinotega.
    
  • Matagalpa became extinct in the 19th century; the eponymous people now speak Spanish.[9]
    
  • Only a few short word lists remain.
    
  • It was closely related to the Cacaopera language.
    

Word List(s)

Spanish

• Spanish Genealogical Word List
• Useful Spanish phrases (Omniglot)

Miskito

Sumo or Mayagna

Rama

Garifuna

• Garifuna Vocabulary (Wikipedia)
• Useful phrases in Garifuna (Omniglot)

Other helpful Genealogical Word Lists include:

• Chinese Genealogical Word List
• Arabic Genealogical Word List
• German Genealogical Word List
• Italian Genealogical Word List

Alphabet and Pronunciation

Spanish

• Spanish Alphabet and Pronunciation (Omniglot)
• Spanish Pronunciation Dictionary (Forvo)
• Spanish grammar (Wikipedia)

Miskito

• Miskito grammar (Wikipedia)
• Miskito Alphabet and Pronunciation (Omniglot)

Sumo or Mayagna

• Sumo Phonology (Wikipedia)

Rama

• Rama Phonology (Wikipedia)
• Rama Grammar (Wikipedia)
• Rama Alphabet and Pronunciation (Omniglot)

Garifuna

• Garifuna Grammar (Wikipedia)
• Garifuna Phonology (Wikipedia)
• Garifuna Alphabet and Pronunciation (Omniglot)

Language Aids and Dictionaries

Spanish

• Spanish Letter Writing Guide
• Spanish Handwriting Clarified
• Learn Spanish (duolingo)
• Spanish dictionary (Lexilogos)
• English to Spanish Dictionary (Glosbe)
• The Spanish Script Tutorial (byu.ed)

Miskito

• Ziock, H. Dictionary of the English and Miskito languages. Herrnhut: G. Winter, 1894. Available at: WorldCat.
• The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America : Mískito. Austin, Texas: The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America, 2003. Available at: WorldCat.

Sumo or Mayagna

Rama

• English to Rama Dictionary (Glosbe)

Garifuna

• English to Garifuna Dictionary (Glosbe)

Additional Resources

• Nicaragua (Britannica)
• Nicaragua (Wikitravel)