Lencan languages
| Lencan | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | El Salvador and Honduras |
| Ethnicity | Lenca people |
| Linguistic classification | Macro-Chibchan ?
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | len |
| Glottolog | lenc1239 |
Map of El Salvador's Indigenous Peoples at the time of the Spanish conquest:
1. Pipil people, 2. Lenca people, 3. Kakawira o Cacaopera, 4. Xinca, 5. Maya Ch'orti' people, 6. Maya Poqomam people, 7. Mangue o Chorotega. | |
Lenca is Extinct according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
The Lencan languages are a small linguistic family from Central America, whose speakers before the Spanish conquest spread throughout El Salvador and Honduras. But by the beginning of the 20th century, only two languages of the family survived, Salvadoran Lenca or Potón and Honduran Lenca, which were described and studied academically; Of them, only Salvadoran Lenca still has current speakers, despite the fact that indigenous people belonging to the Lenca ethnic group exceed between 37,000 and 100,000 people.