ABSTRACT
Recent attempts to classify the Indians of Spanish America have not always recognized the variety of cultural-linguistic groups that inhabited Honduras. Steward, in his original typology of South American cultures, identified a fourfold developmental sequence of Marginal, Tropical Forest, Circum-Caribbean and Sub-Andean, and Andean cultures. Although the Lenca inhabited the greater part of central Honduras at the time of Spanish conquest, there are few historical references to these Indians or their language. The distribution of the Lenca can be judged by place-name evidence. From about AD 300 Maya cultural influences extended into western Honduras, probably reaching their maximum extension about AD 900. The Chorotega belong to the Oto-Manguean linguistic stock and the language they spoke in Honduras was referred to as Choluteca or Mangue. The areas of eastern Honduras and Nicaragua where unconverted Indians remained outside Spanish control were known as the Taguzgalpa and the Tologalpa.
