Languages of Costa Rica
See language map.[See also SIL publications on the languages of Costa Rica.]
Republic of Costa Rica, República de Costa Rica. 4,327,000. National or official language: Spanish. Literacy rate: 93% (WA 1999). Immigrant languages: Basque, Eastern Yiddish, Yue Chinese (4,500). Information mainly from SIL 1967–2002. Blind population: 2,500. Deaf population: 202,625. Deaf institutions: 9. The number of individual languages listed for Costa Rica is 10. Of those, all are living languages.
| Boruca | [brn]
5 (1986 SIL). 30 to 35 nonfluent speakers. Ethnic population: 1,000 (1991). South coast between Playa Bonita and Golfito.
Alternate names: Borunca, Brunca, Brunka, Burunca.
Classification: Chibchan, Talamanca
Nearly extinct.
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| Bribri | [bzd]
11,000 (2002). Ethnic population: 12,172 (2000). South, Limón Province, Canton of Talamanca, along Lari, Telire, Uren rivers; Puntarenas Province, Canton of Buenos Aires.
Alternate names: Talamanca.
Dialects: Salitre-Cabagra, Amubre-Katsi, Coroma. Most similar to, but unintelligible with Cabécar [cjp], Maleku Jaika [gut], and Teribe [tfr]. At least 3 major dialects which are inherently mutually intelligible.
Classification: Chibchan, Talamanca
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| Cabécar | [cjp]
8,840 (2000). 7,072 monolinguals (80%). Ethnic population: 9,308 (2000). Turrialba region.
Alternate names: Chirripó.
Dialects: Chirripó, Telire, Estrella, Ujarrás.
Classification: Chibchan, Talamanca
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| Costa Rican Sign Language | [csr]
Dialects: May be related to Providencia Sign Language [prz]. Lexical similarity: 60% with ASL [ase].
Classification: Deaf sign language
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| Limón Creole English | [jam]
55,100 in Costa Rica (1986). East of San José, principally along the railroad between Siquirres and Limón, south of Limón along the road.
Alternate names: Southwestern Caribbean Creole English.
Classification: Creole, English based, Atlantic, Western
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| Maléku Jaíka | [gut]
750 (2000). Ethnic population: 1,074 (2000). Northern.
Alternate names: Guatuso.
Classification: Chibchan, Rama
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| Ngäbere | [gym]
5,090 in Costa Rica (2000). Ethnic population: 5,360 (2000).
Alternate names: Guaymí.
Classification: Chibchan, Guaymi
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| Plautdietsch | [pdt]
100 in Costa Rica (Minnich 1974). Sarapiqui area.
Alternate names: Low German, Mennonite German.
Classification: Indo-European, Germanic, West, Low Saxon-Low Franconian, Low Saxon
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| Spanish | [spa]
3,300,000 in Costa Rica (1995).
Alternate names: Castellano, Español.
Classification: Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Western, Gallo-Iberian, Ibero-Romance, West Iberian, Castilian
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| Teribe | [tfr]
5 in Costa Rica (1991 SIL). Ethnic population: 35 to 300 in Costa Rica (1991 SIL). Southeast, north coast.
Alternate names: Terraba.
Classification: Chibchan, Talamanca
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