Language
Chibchan, also known as muysca, mosca, or muska kubun, belongs to the language family of Paezan languages, or Macro-Chibcha. It was spoken across several regions of Central America and the north of South America. The Tayrona Culture and the U'wa, related to the Muisca Culture, spoke similar languages, which encouraged trade.
Many Chibcha words were absorbed or "loaned" into Colombian Spanish:
- Geography: Many names of localities and regions were kept. In some cases, the Spanish named cities with a combination of Chibchan and Spanish words, such as Santa Fe de Bogotá. Most of the municipalities of the Boyacá and Cundinamarca departments are derived from Chibchan names: Bogotá, Sogamoso, Zipaquirá, and many others.
- Fruits, such as curuba and uchuva.
- Relations: The youngest child is called cuba, or china for a girl; muysca means people.
Read more about this topic: Muisca People
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“As in private life one differentiates between what a man thinks and says of himself and what he really is and does, so in historical struggles one must still more distinguish the language and the imaginary aspirations of parties from their real organism and their real interests, their conception of themselves from their reality.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)