Ixcatec, or ''Xwja'', is a language spoken by the people of the
Mexican village of
Santa María Ixcatlan, in the northern part of the state of
Oaxaca
Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...
. The Ixcatec language belongs to the
Popolocan branch of the
Oto-manguean
The Oto-Manguean or Otomanguean languages are a large family comprising several subfamilies of indigenous languages of the Americas. All of the Oto-Manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but the Manguean branch of the ...
language family.
195 people reported speaking the language in the 2020 census,
[Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020]
INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020.
but according to the
Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes
The Secretariat of Culture ( es, Secretaría de Cultura), formerly known as the National Council for Culture and Arts ( es, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes or CONACULTA), is a Mexican government agency in charge of the nation's museums ...
, there were only 8 speakers of the language in 2008.
[Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, "SÓLO QUEDAN OCHO HABLANTES DE XWJA O IXCATECO EN SANTA MARÍA IXCATLÁN, OAXACA", Press Release, May 27, 2008] The small number of current speakers is the result of a steady decline over the last 60 years, which can be attributed to anti-illiteracy campaigns by the Mexican government that discouraged the use of indigenous languages, migration from the area to the cities, and the small initial population of speakers of the language.
[Monaghan, John D. and Jeffrey Cohen, "30 Years of Oaxacan Ethnography," in "Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians, Volume 6: Ethnology," Victoria R. Bricker, John D. Monaghan, Eds. University of Texas Press, 2000.
]
Notes
References
*
Mesoamerican languages
Indigenous languages of Mexico
Oto-Manguean languages
Popolocan languages
Endangered Oto-Manguean languages
{{Oto-Manguean-lang-stub