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Paez language

Páez
Nasa Yuwe
Native to Colombia
Region Andes
Ethnicity 120,000 Páez (2007)
Native speakers
40,000 (2007)
Paezan ?
  • Páez
Dialects
  • Pitayo
  • Paniquita
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottolog paez1247

Páez (also Paez, Paes; the autonym Nasa Yuwe 'Nasa language' is becoming increasingly used) is a language isolate of Colombia spoken by the Páez people. Ethnologue estimates 71,400 to 83,300 speakers, including 40,000 monolingual, out of an ethnic population of 140,000.

It is spoken by the second largest Colombian indigenous community, the Páez, in the north of the Cauca Department, in southwestern Colombia. However, the people had to move to other departments of Colombia like Huila, Tolima and Valle del Cauca.

Although many Colombian indigenous languages have disappeared since colonial times, there are still more than 60 languages in Colombia, classified into 10 linguistic families: Chibcha, Arawak, Caribe, Quichua, Tukano, Guahibo, Makú-Puinave, Witoto-Bora, Sáliba, and Chocó. Currently, the Chibcha family has languages from Santa Marta: Arhuaco, kogui, Wiwa, Tunebo, Motilone, Chimila and Cuna, but it used to be believed that Nasa Yuwe was part of the Chibcha family.


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