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Rama is one of the indigenous languages of the Chibchan family spoken by the Rama people on the island of Rama Cay and south of lake Bluefields on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. Other indigenous languages of this region include: Miskito and Sumu . Rama is one of the northernmost languages of the Chibchan family . The Rama language is severely endangered. Their language was described as "dying quickly for lack of use" as early as the 1860s . By 1980, the Rama were noted as having "all but lost their original ethnic language", and had become speakers of a form of English creole instead . Language revival efforts began in 1980–1981 under the Sandinistas; though literacy campaigns were launched for neighbouring languages such as Miskito and Sumu, the same was not practical for Rama due to the small number of speakers. . The fieldwork for the first dictionary of Rama was done during this time by Robin Schneider, a graduate student from the University of Berlin . In 1992, only approximately 36 fluent speakers could be found among an ethnic population of 649 individuals in 1992 . The number of speakers on Rama Cay island was only 4 in 1992, due to language shift to English that engendered Rama Cay Creole . == Phonology == There are three basic vowel sounds: ''a, i'' and ''u''. In addition to these, ''e'' and ''o'' have been introduced as distinct vowels in some foreign loanwords. Each vowel may be either short or long. Here the vowels are shown in standard Rama orthography (see for example ): The following consonants are found (IPA transcriptions are shown where helpful): Rama words have non-predictable stress.〔Lehmann's vocabulary indicates stress; modern standard spelling does not.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rama language」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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