Boruca language

Boruca
Boruca
Bronca
Native to	Costa Rica
Ethnicity	one thousand Boruca people (1991)
Native speakers	3 (2007)
Language family	Chibchan Boruca;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	brn
Glottolog	boru1252
ELP	Boruca

The Boruca language (in Boruca: Brúnkajk;^[2] also known as Bronka, Bronca, Brunca) is the native language of the Boruca people of Costa Rica. Boruca belongs to the Isthmian branch of the Chibchan languages. Though exact speaker numbers are uncertain, UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger has listed Boruca as "critically endangered".^[2]^[3] It was spoken fluently by only five women in 1986, while 30 to 35 others spoke it non-fluently. The rest of the tribe's 1,000 members speak Spanish.

Boruca is taught as a second language at the local primary school Escuela Doris Z. Stone. One can hear Bronka words and phrases mixed into Spanish conversations but it is extremely rare to hear prolonged exchanges in Bronka.

Grammar

The personal pronouns in Boruca (the ᵛ represents a glottal stop.)^[4]

Person	Singular	Plural
1st	át	diᵛ / diᵛ rójc
2nd	bá	biᵛ / biᵛ rójc
3rd	i	i rójc / iᵛ rójc

The numbers (the "n̈", "n" with the diaeresis "¨" on top may be unavailable in some fonts, it represents a slightly different sound from the normal n or ñ.)^[5]

Numbers	Bronka
1	éᵛxe, éᵛxi
2	búᵛc
3	man̈
4	bájcan̈
5	shishcán̈
6	téshan
7	cúj, cújc
8	éjtan̈
9	cújtan̈, éjcuj
10	téjcuj, cróshtan̈, búᵛc cúj

Greetings

¿Ishójcre rában? 'What's up?'

Morén, morén. 'Fine, well.'^[6]

External links

Map of Boruca

References

^ ^a ^b Boruca at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ ^a ^b Hanson, Seibert; E, Aroline (2019). "Reexamining the classification of an endangered language: The vitality of Brunca". Language Documentation & Conservation. 13: 384–400. ISSN 1934-5275.
^ UNESCO. “UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger”. 2017. http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/index.php.
^ Quesada Pacheco 1995, p. 33.
^ Quesada Pacheco 1995, p. 82.
^ Maroto Rojas, Espíritu Santo (1999). "Palabras varias Saludos". Lengua o dialecto Boruca o Brunkajk. (in Spanish and Boruca). San José, Costa Rica: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica. p. 49. ISBN 9977-67-554-6.

Bibliography

Quesada Pacheco, Miguel Ángel (1995). Hablemos Boruca. (in Spanish and Boruca). San José, Costa Rica: Ministerio de Educación Pública. p. 33. ISBN 9977-60-114-3.