The
Chibchan languages (also
Chíbchan,
Chibchano) make up a
language family indigenous to the
Isthmo-Colombian Area, which extends from eastern
Honduras to northern
Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as
Nicaragua,
Costa Rica, and
Panama. The name is derived from the name of an
extinct language called
Chibcha or
Muisca cubun, once spoken by the people who lived in the city of
Bogotá at the time of the
European invasion. However, genetic and linguistic data now indicate that the original heart of Chibchan languages and Chibchan-speaking peoples may not have been in Colombia at all, but in the area of the
Costa Rica-
Panama border, where one finds the greatest variety of Chibchan languages.