Ayapa Zoque

Ayapa Zoque
Ayapaneco
Tabasco Zoque
Nuumte Oote
Native to Mexico
Region Jalpa de Méndez, Tabasco
Native speakers
2 (2011)[1]
Mixe-Zoquean
Language codes
ISO 639-3 zoq
Glottolog taba1264[2]

Ayapa Zoque (Ayapaneco), or Tabasco Zoque, is a critically endangered Zoquean language of Ayapa, a village 10 km east of Comalcalco, in Tabasco, Mexico. The native name is Nuumte Oote 'True Voice'.[3] A vibrant, albeit minority, language until the middle of the 20th century, the language suffered after the introduction of compulsory education in Spanish, urbanisation, and migration of its speakers.[3][4] As of 2011, only a handful of people still spoke Ayapaneco fluently, among them particularly Manuel Segovia (b. c. 1936) and Isidro Velasquez (b. c. 1942) were proficient speakers.[5] In 2010 a story started circulating that the last two speakers of the Ayapaneco language were enemies and no longer talked to each other. The story was incorrect, and while it was quickly corrected it came to circulate widely.[6]

Daniel Suslak, an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University, is one of the linguists working to prepare the first dictionary of the language.[3][7] Since 2012, the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (INALI) (also known as the National Indigenous Languages Institute) has been supporting the Ayapa community's efforts at revitalising their language.[3] In 2013 Vodafone launched an advertisement campaign in which they claimed to have helped the community revitalize the language, proposing an erroneous story of enmity between Don Manuel and Don Isidro. According to Suslak and other observers the actual help provided to Ayapan and the Ayapaneco language by Vodafone was extremely limited and did not address the actual necessities of the community.[6][8]

See also

References

  1. Ayapa Zoque at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Tabasco Zoque". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Jo Tuckman (2011-04-13). "Language at risk of dying out – the last two speakers aren't talking". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 April 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-14.
  4. Suslak, D. F. (2011), Ayapan Echoes: Linguistic Persistence and Loss in Tabasco, Mexico. American Anthropologist, 113: 569–581. doi: 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2011.01370.x
  5. 1 2 http://stories.schwa-fire.com/who_save_ayapaneco#chapter-113060
  6. "Anthropology Department of the Indiana University". 2011-02-08. Archived from the original on 14 March 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-14.
  7. http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2014/09/22/actualidad/1411404288_888925.html

External links

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