native speakers 1 in 2012 threatened language (according to diario salvadoreño)[1]
Language family
Lencan
Salvadoran lencan
Language codes
ISO 639-3
None (mis)
Glottolog
lenc1243
ELP
Salvadoran Lenca
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.
Salvadoran Lenca or Potón is a language of the linguistic family of the Lenca languages spoken in El Salvador; and of which two dialects have been described: that of Chilanga (extinct), and that of Guatajiagua; Other dialects may have existed in the past in the other towns where the Lencas lived in present-day El Salvador.[2]
According to Adolfo Costenla Umaña, the Salvadoran Lenca and the Honduran Lenca would have separated 2,295 years ago; time in which the archaeological site of Quelepa would have been founded.[3]
By 2012, there was only one native speaker left in Guatajiagua, department of Morazán, named Mario Salvador Hernández; who learned the language from his grandmother, and who together with Consuelo Roque would write a learning booklet entitled: Poton piau, nuestro idioma Potón in conjunction with the Lenca Communal Association of Guatajiagua, and published in 1999. In total, said document would compile 380 words. Currently in El Salvador there are rehabilitation projects for the Salvadoran Lenca to prevent its extinction.[4][5][6][7][8][a]
Salvadoran Lenca is of the small language family of Lencan languages that consists of two languages one of which is the Salvadoran Lenca and the Honduran Lenca. There have been attempts to link the Lencan languages to other languages within their groupings, but there has been no success. [9]
^Cite error: The named reference Last Guatajiagua Lenca was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Hernández, Consuelo (1999). "Poton Piau. Nuestro idioma Poton. Comunidad indígena lenca de Guatajiagua, Morazán". Universidad de El Salvador. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^Costenla Umaña, Adolfo (2002). Acerca de la relación genealógica de las lenguas lencas y las lenguas misumalpas. Universidad de Costa Rica. {{cite book}}: |periodical= ignored (help)
^Cite error: The named reference poton was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Herrera, Alejandro (2024-01-10). "Guatajiagua, Capital del Barro Negro Artesanal". Guanacos (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-02-03.
^Frederick Meza (9 August 2019). "El último lenca de Guatajiagua".
^Aburto, Wilfredo Miranda (2023-12-13). "La herencia Lenca resiste en el oriente de El Salvador | Fotoreportaje 📸". Divergentes (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-03-28.
^Hidalgo, Daniel (2016-05-24). "Guatajiagua: Revitalizando el Idioma Potón". Activismo Digital de Lenguas Indígenas (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-04-19.
^ Campbell, Lyle. Glossary of Historical Linguistics. Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
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