Mangue, also known as Chorotega,Daniel G. Brinton. 1886. Notes on the Mangue; An Extinct Dialect Formerly Spoken in Nicaragua Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 23, No. 122 (Apr., 1886), pp. 238-257 is an extinct Oto-Manguean language ancestral to Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica. The dialects were known as: Mangue proper in western Nicaragua, which was further subdivided into Dirian and Nagrandan; Choluteca in the region of Honduras' Bay of Fonseca; and Orotiña in Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula.
Phonology Consonants LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottalPlosivevoicelessprenasalAffricate()()FricativeNasalFlapGlide /t, k/ can have allophones [ts, tʃ].
Stop and fricative sounds /p, t, k, s/ can turn voiced [b, d, ɡ, z] after nasal sounds.
Vowels Three vowels are noted /a, i, u/. Suprasegmentals, almost certainly tone given that all extant Oto-Manguean languages are tonal, distinguished certain minimal pairs, but the number of distinct tones is unknown. Allophones are also noted. SoundAllophone, , , , , ,
Grammar This section is based on Rodriguez (2015).
Typologically, Mangue belonged to the Mesoamerican language area as it possessed certain characteristic features such as a vigesimal numeral system. It was dissimilar from neighboring Chibchan and Misumalpan languages. Three main grammatical categories were distinguished: nouns, verbs and particles. Instead of adjectives properly speaking, Mangue had stative verbs.
Verbs Verbs took prefixes marking tense/aspect/mood, and suffixes marking person. Uninflected verbs were realis and can correspond to either past or present tense.
Verbal prefixes: e-: glossed as imperative, but likely represented present indicative instead based on comparison with Chiapanec u-: imperative tu-: either past or present ta-: glossed variously as future or imperfect. In Chiapanec, this prefix indicated the future. m-: possibly indicated the "conjunctive" mood, which indicated either subordination or simultaneity and could be translated as "when". a-: appears on some intransitive verbs. In Chiapanec, it indicated the present.
Nouns Inalienable nouns took one of three prefixes:
mb-/nd-/ng-: one possessor - the three were allomorphs, mb- appearing before /a/ and ng- before /u/ or /i/, though there were exceptions. nd- is rarer. kupa-: multiple possessors n-: no possessor
Number was distinguished by apophony, where a medial /u/ indicated singular, and /i/ plural: nyuri = flower; niri = flowers ngura = foot; ngira = feet nasunyamo = lady; nasinyamo = ladies
Personal suffixes These suffixes indicate possession on nouns, and subject on verbs.
-jo/-ju: first person singular (my; I) -ja: second person (singular?) (your; you) -me/-mi: third person singular, apparently indicating the subject on intransitive verbs and object on transitive verbs in a form of ergativity
Syntax Mangue is a predominantly right-branching or head-initial language. Objects and subjects both appear after the verb, but there is no attested sentence that has both an explicit subject and object. Attributive adjectives follow their noun heads, and possessors follow possessed.
Phrases Brinton gives a list of Mangue words and phrases, some of which are:
The verb "to be," I am, . Thou art, . He is, neje sumu. We are, cis mi muh.
Pronouns. saho. My, amba, mba. He, neje. She, neja.
Phrases. Koi murio, It is already dawn. Koi yujmi, It is already night. Koi prijpi, It is already growing dark. Susupusca? How are you? Ko' mi muya''' i ku ? And you, how are you ?Camo cujmi umyaique, Nasi pujimo camo? There is nothing new; and you, how are you ? Gusapo, Take a seatPami nyumuta, The food is goodRopia, Come hereUño I See I Mis upa'? Where are you going?Taspo, Yes.Tapame, Be good.
Brinton also compares the color terms of Mangue and Chiapanec:
Mangue. Chiapanec. Black, nanzome. dujamä. White, nandirime. dilimä. Yellow, nandiume. nandikumä. Blue or Green nandipame. ndipamä. Red, arimbome. nduimä.
And a number of Nicaraguan and Costa Rican placenames that come from the Mangue language:Nindiria (from ninda - shore, diri, hill)Nakutiri (from naku - fire, diri, hill)Monimbe (ntimbu - water, rain)Nandasinmo (nanda - brook)Mombonasi (nasi - woman)MasayaManaguaNamotivaNoromeDiriambaNicoyaOretinaNotes
References Kaufman, Terrence, (2001) Nawa linguistic prehistory, published at website of the Mesoamerican Language Documentation Project Fabre, Alain, (2005) Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos: OTOMANGUE. McCallister, Rick. Mangue Chorotega , published on line in 2012 (80+ pages in PDF) (based on Quirós Rodríguez’s compilation with added toponyms, cultural terms, etc.) Constenla Umaña, Adolfo (Author). (1992). "The Languages of the Greater Nicoya". Costa Rican Languages Collection of Adolfo Constenla Umaña'' . The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America: www.ailla.utexas.org. Media: text. Access: public. Resource: MUL010R001.