Emberá languages


Emberá is a dialect continuum spoken by 100,000 people in northwestern Colombia and southeastern Panama. It belongs to the Choco language family.
Embera, Emperã, Empena, Eberã, Epena, etc. is the Embera word for 'human being' or 'man' and is used as the autonym by all speakers of varieties of Embera. It is also sometimes used to refer to other Indigenous people who are not of Emberá ethnicity.

Languages and regional variation

Emberá is usually divided into at least two major groupings:
  1. Northern Emberá
  2. Southern Emberá
Each has a few regional varieties. These varieties are sometimes considered dialects but are actually distinct languages. The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America lists them as follows, along with alleged sub-varieties which may be places, extinct groups, or misspellings:
  • Northern
  • * Catío : Dabeiba, Tukurá, Ngverá
  • * Northern Emberá : Darién, Citará, Juradó
  • Southern
  • * Chamí : Tadó*, Cristianía, Upper Andágueda, Mistrató, Garrapatas
  • * Baudó: Catrú, Dubasa, Purricha, Pavaja
  • * Eperara : Joaquincito, Cajambre, Naya, Saija, Tapaje, Satinga
Ethnologue treats Tadó as a separate language. A case can be made for classifying Baudó in the Northern Embera group. It has many features of both groups and is partially intelligible with the neighboring Northern Embera dialect as well as with Epena.