Ayapa Zoque (''Ayapaneco''), or Tabasco Zoque, is a critically endangered Zoquean language of Ayapa, a village 10 km southeast of

Comalcalco Comalcalco is a city located in Comalcalco Municipality about 45 miles (60 km) northwest of Villahermosa in the Mexican state of Tabasco. Near the city is the Pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site of Comalcalco. The literal English transla ...

, in

Tabasco Tabasco (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tabasco ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tabasco), is one of the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa. It is located in ...

, Mexico. The native name is ''Nuumte Oote'' "True Voice". A vibrant, albeit minority, language until the middle of the 20th century, the language suffered after the introduction of compulsory education in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

, urbanisation, and migration of its speakers. Nowadays there are approximately 15 speakers whose ages range from 67 to 90. 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.

Daniel Suslak Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength" ...

, an assistant professor of anthropology at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

, is one of the

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

s working to prepare the first dictionary of the language. Since 2012, the

Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas The Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (National Indigenous Languages Institute, better known by its acronym INALI) is a Mexican federal public agency, created 13 March 2003 by the enactment of the Ley General de Derechos Lingüísticos de ...

(INALI, also known as the National Indigenous Languages Institute) has been supporting the Ayapa community's efforts at revitalising their language. In 2013

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...

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. The commercial appeared on YouTube. 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. A PhD dissertation on Ayapa Zoque at the

Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales ( en, National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French university specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. ...

(INALCO) appeared in 2019, and an orthography designed to better facilitate the development of pedagogical materials and education of new learners is under development.

References

External links

Indiana University Minority Languages & Cultures of Latin America & the Caribbean Program

National Indigenous Languages Institute

Vocabulario de la lengua zoque de Tapijulapa
* Jhonnatan Rangel, How many speakers of Ayapa Zoque? in Where's the last speaker? (ISSN 2494-2073),19/05/2016, http://wils.hypotheses.org/351
Ayapaneco language about to disappear because the only two persons who know it do not speak to each other
* Ho, Erica (April 18, 2011)
"Last Two Speakers of Dying Language Refuse to Talk to Each Other"
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Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

''.
"Last 2 Speakers Of Dying Language Won’t Speak To Each Other"
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''. (April 14, 2011).
Anthro Source
Indigenous languages of Mexico Endangered Mixe–Zoque languages Mixe–Zoque languages {{na-lang-stub

See also

References

External links