Republic of El Salvador, República de El Salvador. 5,943,000 (1995). Literacy rate 55% to 63%. Also includes Chinese 1,300. Information mainly from SIL 1973-1991. Christian, secular. Blind population 8,000. Deaf population 150,000 (1993). Deaf institutions: 4. Data accuracy estimate: A1, A2. The number of languages listed for El Salvador is 6. Of those, 5 are living languages and 1 is extinct.
CACAOPERA [CCR] Department of Mozarán. Misumalpan. Closely related to Matagalpa. In 1974 several elderly men could remember a few words and fixed phrases, but none had been native speakers. Extinct.
EL SALVADORAN SIGN LANGUAGE [ESN] Deaf sign language. Different from French or Spanish sign languages. Survey needed.
KEKCHÍ (QUECCHÍ, CACCHÉ) [KEK] 12,286 in El Salvador; 363,000 in all countries. Also in Guatemala, southern Belize. Mayan, Quichean-Mamean, Greater Quichean, Kekchi. Typology: SVO. Bible 1990. NT 1961-1984. Bible portions 1937-1986.
LENCA [LEN] (36,858 in ethnic group in El Salvador, 1987; or .6% of the population; 1982 Barrett). Town of Chilango. Also in Honduras. Unclassified. A different dialect of Lenca is in Honduras. Some classify this as Macro-Chibchan. Nearly extinct.
PIPIL (NAHUAT) [PPL] 20 speakers approximately, all older people, out of 196,576 in ethnic group (1987). Eastern. A few in Honduras. Uto-Aztecan, Southern Uto-Aztecan, Aztecan, Pipil. High level of bilingualism. Perhaps intelligible with Isthmus Nahuatl of Mexico (Otto Schumann 1969). Has been taught in some schools for several years (D. Stewart 1994). Nearly extinct.
SPANISH (ESPAÑOL, CASTELLANO) [SPN] 5,900,000 in El Salvador (1995), or 92.3% of the population (1982 Barrett); 266,000,000 in all countries (1987 Time). Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Western, Ibero-Romance, North, Central. National language. Bible 1553-1979. NT 1543-1986. Bible portions 1514-1985.
Part of the Ethnologue, 13th Edition, Barbara F. Grimes, Editor.
Copyright © 1996, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc. All rights reserved.
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