Xincan languages

The Xinca languages ​​form a small language family in southern Guatemala.

Subdivision and relations to other languages

It includes the following languages ​​, all of which are threatened with extinction or already extinct:

• Yupiltepeque - Jutiapa ( extinct)
• Yumaytepeque ( extinct)
• Chiquimulilla ( perhaps only semi Speaker)
• Guazacapán ( only a few speakers)

Current situation

Xinca is one of the few indigenous language groups in Guatemala that do not belong to the Mayan languages ​​spoken in seven municipios and a village in Santa Rosa and Jutiapa. Contrary to the information from the Ethnologue Xinca is not yet extinct, but it is only spoken by elderly people: About the year 2006 six speakers were counted in Guazacapán. From the 1990s, there were data from 25 to 300 speakers, but on the 2002 census gave 1,283 Xinka as mother tongue; 16,214 identified themselves as Xinka.