Costa Rica's official and predominant language is Spanish. The variety spoken there, Costa Rican Spanish, is a form of Central American Spanish.

Costa Rica is a linguistically diverse country and home to at least five living local indigenous languages spoken by the descendants of pre-Columbian peoples: Maléku, Cabécar, Bribri, Guaymí, and Buglere.

Immigration has also brought people and languages from various countries around the world. Along the Atlantic Ocean in Limón Province, inhabited primarily by Afro-Caribs, an English-based creole language called Mekatelyu or Patua is spoken to varying degrees, as is English; many older Limonenses speak English as their native language. The Quakers community, who settled in Monteverde in the early 1950s, speaks an older dialect of English, using thou instead of you.[1][2]Costa Rican Sign Language is also spoken by the deaf community, and Costa Rican Spanish slang is known as "pachuco".

Currently, in Costa Rica, there are five indigenous languages that are still used by their respective populations. All of them belonging to the Chibcha language family. Those languages are:

Maléku language: Also known as Guatuso, spoken by around 800 people in north-eastern Alajuela Province. This language, along with Rama, belongs to the Votic branch of the Chibchan language family.
Cabécar language: Spoken in the Talamanca mountain range and in the southern Pacific region, Cabécar is the sister language to Bribri in the Isthmic branch of the Chibchan language family.
Bribri language: Bribri is spoken on the Atlantic slope of the country, including Limón Province, the Talamanca mountain range, and the south Pacífic region. Together with Cabécar, it forms the Viceitic subgroup of Chibchan languages.
Guaymí language: Spoken in various indigenous territories to the southeast of Puntarenas Province, bordering Panama. Together with Buglere, it belongs to the Guaymic subgroup of the Chibchan languages. Also known as Ngäbere or Movere.
Buglere language: Spoken in the same territories as Guaymí, the language to which it is most closely related. It is also known as Bocotá.

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