Costa Rica

Extensive List of Languages of Costa Rica: Spoken and Extinct Languages

:: Languages of Costa Rica (Europe) ::

Boruca [brn] 5 (1986 SIL). 30 to 35 nonfluent speakers. Ethnic population: 1,000 (1991). South coast between Playa Bonita and Golfito. Alternate names: Borunca, Brunca, Brunka, Burunca. Classification: Chibchan, Talamanca Nearly extinct.

Bribri [bzd] 11,000 (2002). Ethnic population: 12,172 (2000). South, Limón Province, Canton of Talamanca, along Lari, Telire, Uren rivers; Puntarenas Province, Canton of Buenos Aires.Alternate names: Talamanca. Dialects: Salitre-Cabagra, Amubre-Katsi, Coroma. Most similar to, but unintelligible with Cabécar [cjp], Maleku Jaika [gut], and Teribe [tfr]. At least 3 major dialects which are inherently mutually intelligible. Classification: Chibchan, Talamanca

Cabécar [cjp] 8,840 (2000). 7,072 monolinguals (80%). Ethnic population: 9,308 (2000). Turrialba region.Alternate names: Chirripó. Dialects: Chirripó, Telire, Estrella, Ujarrás. Classification: Chibchan, Talamanca

Costa Rican Sign Language [csr] Dialects: May be related to Providencia Sign Language [prz]. Lexical similarity: 60% with ASL [ase]. Classification: Deaf sign language

Limón Creole English [jam] 55,100 in Costa Rica (1986). East of San José, principally along the railroad between Siquirres and Limón, south of Limón along the road. Alternate names: Southwestern Caribbean Creole English. Classification: Creole, English based, Atlantic, Western

Maléku Jaíka [gut] 750 (2000). Ethnic population: 1,074 (2000). Northern. Alternate names: Guatuso. Classification: Chibchan, Rama

Ngäbere [gym] 5,090 in Costa Rica (2000). Ethnic population: 5,360 (2000). Alternate names: Guaymí. Classification: Chibchan, Guaymi

Plautdietsch [pdt] 100 in Costa Rica (Minnich 1974). Sarapiqui area. Alternate names: Low German, Mennonite German. Classification: Indo-European, Germanic, West, Low Saxon-Low Franconian, Low Saxon

Spanish [spa] 3,300,000 in Costa Rica (1995). Alternate names: Castellano, Español. Classification:Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Western, Gallo-Iberian, Ibero-Romance, West Iberian, Castilian

Teribe [tfr] 5 in Costa Rica (1991 SIL). Ethnic population: 35 to 300 in Costa Rica (1991 SIL). Southeast, north coast. Alternate names: Terraba. Classification: Chibchan, Talamanca

:: Reference ::
Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com/