Miskito language
| Miskito | |
|---|---|
| Mískitu | |
| Native to | Nicaragua, Honduras |
| Region | North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region, neighbouring areas |
| Ethnicity | Miskito people |
Native speakers | 150,000 Language At Risk of extinction (2005)[1] |
|
Misumalpan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
miq |
| Glottolog |
misk1235[2] |
Extinction Status = At Risk
Miskito (Mískitu in the Miskito language) 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 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. This name is formed from parts of the names of the family's subgroups: Miskito, Sumo, Matagalpan. Although some aspects of the internal family tree with family are uncertain, it is clear Miskito is apart from sumo and Matagalpan, which seem to share a common lower node, and that in the past Miskito was heavily influenced by other Misumalpan languages. Sumo is thought to have been dominant in the area before the period of Miskito ascendancy. Today the relationship has been reversed: many former Sumo speakers have shifted to Miskito, which has in turn heavily influenced the Sumo dialects. Several of these (Tawahka, Panamahka and Tuahka) constitute the Mayangna sub-branch of Sumo, while the Ulwa language is in another sub-
. The Matagalpan branch of Misumalpan contains two languages that are now extinct: Matagalpa and Cacaopera. The latter was formerly spoken in parts of eastern El Salvador.
In addition to many elements borrowed from other Misumalpan languages, Miskito has a large number of loanwords from English via Creole. Even though Spanish is the official language of Nicaragua and Honduras, its influence on Miskito is much more recent and hence more superficial. There are also many other languages that may have had influence on Miskito. Some different influences have been Sumi dialects as there has been a lot of connections with vocabulary and grammar. There have also been connections to other languages such as Arawak, Rama, Carib, and also some Western African languages.
History
Many of the Miskito are a mixed race with either African- Native American ancestry or a mix of African- Native American and also British ancestry. The Miskito people had strong relationship with the British and they signed the [[Treaty of Friendship and Alliance| Treaty of Friendship and Alliance]]. Eventually the British began to lose interest in the region and Great Britain allowed Nicaragua to have uncontested claim over the Mosquito Coast. A treaty was signed in which a Miskito reserve, a self-governing entity that enjoyed semi-sovereign rights was given to the Miskito people, but Honduras eventually took over the area. In the 20th century the Miskito language started to be very limited as schools had banned the Miskito language from being spoken in school. [[Honduras]] after being conquered by Spain in the 16th Century had turned there predominant language into Spanish and this impacted the Miskito language in the 20th century. In schools kids were forbidden to speak Miskito for most of the 20th century and only could speak Spanish which contributed to fewer people speaking Miskito and if the language ever goes extinct which is a strong possibility, that rule could be a big reason. In the 1990 many groups lobbied the ban of the rule and have bilingual schools so there languages can be preserved for the future. Eventually pilot bilingual schools were set up and it expanded to about 20 bilingual schools The many different cultures that Miskito people interacted with affected Miskito culture as there language slowly began to die out. The main language that had begun to take over was Spanish as Miskito children were not allowed to speak it in school which would make Miskito like a second language to them. Even though those rules have been changed the affects of them are still being felt with the language being in danger of going extinct.
Sounds
The letters a, e, I, o, u all correspond to the German sound of these same letters and the letters g, j, s, w, y sound as they do in English with words that end in et such as get, jet, set, etc . Ch also sounds as it does with chest in English and c is not used by itself. The other letter in the alphabet are the same as in English except for h which in English sometimes does not get pronounced but must always be pronounced in Miskito. H sometimes must be distinctly heard in certain words which is very different from English. G.R. Health wrote on Miskito grammar in his book American Anthropologist and had many notes on how the sound will effect that way it is written
“Long vowels will be distinguished by the grave accent (').
The stress accent in Miskuto is almost invariably on the first syllable. Any variations from this rule will be marked by the acute accent, as in Spanish (').
When the grave and acute accents occur on the same vowel, they combine to form the circumflex (^).
Nasalized vowels are sometimes met with: they resemble the ordinary vowels followed by a sound corresponding to the French n in Mon. But as this nasal sound seems to be pronounced not after, but simultaneously with, the vowels, it seems better to mark the vowels with the tilde (~), to indicate that the vowels themselves are nasalized”
There is still much controversy to the orthography and can not be considered settled with printed Miskito grammars, Bible translations, and other printed text.
Numbers
0 - Apu
1 - Kumi
2 - Wal
3 - Yumhpa
4 - WalhWalh
5 - Matsip
6 - Matlal Kahbi
7 - Matlal Kahbi pura kumi
8 - Matlal Kahbi pura Wal
9 - Matlal Kahbi pura yumhpa
10 - Matawalsip
11 - Matawalsip pura kumi
12 - Matawalsi pura wal
Months of the Year
January - Siakwa Kati
February - Kuswa Kati
March - Kakamuk Kati
April - Lih Wainhka Kati
May - Lih Mairin Kati
June - Li Kati
July - Pastara Kati
August - Sikla Kati
September - Wis Kati
October - Waupasa Kati
November - Yahbra Kati
December - Trisu Kati
See also
References
- Richter, Elke (1986). "Observaciones acerca del desarrollo lexical miskito en Nicaragua". Revista de filología románica 1986 (4): 341–346.
Gamboa, Haglan Santiago. "Easy Miskito 2 - Let's Count!" YouTube. YouTube, 17 July 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2016.
External links
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Miskito language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator |
- Miskitu Language Collection of Natalia Bermúdez and Wanda Luz Waldan Peter - archive of audio and video recordings and text transcriptions of historical narratives from native speakers from AILLA.
- Recording of a song in Miskito with an interview in English - from the Collection of Miskito, Quechua and Tseltal of June Nash at AILLA.
- - Miskito - English - Spanish Dictionary
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Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Miskito |
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