a group of South American Indian languages that were spoken before CE 1500 in the area now comprising Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, western Colombia, and Ecuador. A now extinct Chibchan language sometimes known as Muisca was the language of a powerful Indian empire with its centre near Bogotá. Important present-day Chibchan languages include Guaymí and Move in Panama, Kuna and Páez in Colombia, and Chachi and Tsáchila in Ecuador. Some scholars classify a number of minor languages of Central and South America together with Chibchan in a Macro-Chibchan stock.