Popoluca is a
Nahuatl
Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...
term for various indigenous peoples of southeastern
Veracruz
Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...
and
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 ...
. Many of them (about 30,000
["The Popoluca."]
''University of Minnesota, Mankota E-museum.'' (retrieved 1 Feb 2011)) speak languages of the
Mixe–Zoque family. Others speak the unrelated
Mazatecan languages
The Mazatecan languages are a group of closely related indigenous languages spoken by some 200,000 people in the area known as the Sierra Mazateca, which is in the northern part of the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, as well as in adjacent ...
, in which case the name in English and Spanish is generally spelled Popoloca.
Various peoples called Popoluca
The Mixe–Zoque languages called Popoluca are,
*
Mixean
The Mixean languages are a primary branch of the Mixe–Zoquean language family of southern Mexico. According to Wichmann (1995), there are three divergent Mixean languages, and a Oaxacan branch that constitutes the bulk of the family:
*Oluta Po ...
:*
Oluta Popoluca
Oluta Popoluca also called Olutec is a moribund Mixe–Zoquean language of the Mixean branch spoken by a few elderly people in the town of Oluta in Southern Veracruz, Mexico
Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the Unit ...
(Olutec Mixe or Olutec)
:*
Sayula Popoluca
Sayula Popoluca, also called Sayultec, is a Mixe language spoken by around 5,000 indigenous people in and around the town of Sayula de Alemán in the southern part of the state of Veracruz, Mexico. Almost all published research on the language ha ...
(Sayultec Mixe or Sayultec)
*
Zoque
:*
San Andrés Tuxtla
San Andrés Tuxtla is a city and municipality in the south of the Mexican state of Veracruz. The city is the largest in the Los Tuxtlas region. It was founded after an eruption of the San Martín Volcano pushed people into this valley during the ea ...
:*
Sierra Popoluca
Sierra Popoluca, also known as Soteapanec, Soteapan Zoque, or Highland Popoluca, is a developing Mixe-Zoquean language of the Zoquean branch. It has 35,050 speakers (INALI, 2009)INALI (2009)''Catálogo de las Lenguas Indígenas Nacionales: Vari ...
(Soteapanec Zoque, Soteapan Zoque, Soteapaneco, or Soteapan Soke)
:*
Texistepec Popoluca
Texistepec, commonly called either ''Texistepec Popoluca'' or ''Texistepec Zoque'', is a Mixe–Zoquean languages, Mixe–Zoquean language of the Zoque languages, Zoquean branch spoken by a hundred indigenous Popoluca people in and around the tow ...
(Texistepec Zoque)
:*
Zoque Popoluca[
Among the ]Oto-Manguean languages
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 ...
, there are,
* the Popoloca languages
Popoloca is an indigenous Mexican cluster of languages of the Popolocan branch of the Oto-Manguean language family, closely related to Mazatec. They are spoken by 17,000 people
in Puebla state, Mexico, near Tehuacán.
Languages
The Ethnolog ...
, and
* the Popolocan languages
The Popolocan languages are a subfamily of the Oto-Manguean language family of Mexico, spoken mainly in the state of Puebla.
The Popolocan languages should not be confused with the languages called Popoluca spoken in the state of Veracruz, whi ...
, their containing group.
Origin and current use of the terms
The reason for the terms' widespread usage for naming indigenous languages is that they are derogatory words from the Nahuatl
Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...
language, meaning "to speak unintelligibly" or "babble". When the Spanish invaders asked their Nahuatl-speaking allies what language was spoken in a particular locality, the Nahuas would reply "popoloca" meaning in essence "not Nahuatl". The Nahuas used the term "popolōca" much in the same way the Greek used the term "barbaros
Hayreddin Barbarossa ( ar, خير الدين بربروس, Khayr al-Din Barbarus, original name: Khiḍr; tr, Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa), also known as Hızır Hayrettin Pasha, and simply Hızır Reis (c. 1466/1478 – 4 July 1546), was an O ...
", also meaning "gibberish", to refer to non-Greek speaking strangers.
The name however stuck to many languages and has caused some confusion even among linguists working with Native American languages. This confusion prompted some kind of distinction between Popoluca languages and the spelling "Popoluca" with an "u" became used for certain Mixe–Zoque languages
The Mixe–Zoque (also: Mixe–Zoquean, Mije–Soke, Mije–Sokean) languages are a language family whose living members are spoken in and around the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico. The Mexican government recognizes three distinct Mixe–Zoquean ...
, while the spelling "Popoloca" with an "o" became used for certain languages of the Popolocan family of Oto-Manguean languages
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 ...
. Note that the name "Popolocan" is also used by linguists to refer to these languages, which include varieties of Mazatec
The Mazatec are an indigenous people of Mexico who inhabit the Sierra Mazateca in the state of Oaxaca and some communities in the adjacent states of Puebla and Veracruz.
Language family
The Mazatecan languages are part of the Popolocan family wh ...
. In Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...
, the Nahua-speaking Nicarao used the term "Popoluca" for the speakers of the Matagalpa language
Matagalpa is an extinct Misumalpan language formerly spoken in the central highlands of Nicaragua. The language became extinct in the 19th century, and only few short wordlists remain. It was closely related to Cacaopera language, Cacaopera. The e ...
.[D. Victor Jesus Noguera, Cura de Matagalpa: Vocabulario de la Lengua Popoluca de Matagalpa, 1855. In: Walter Lehmann, ''Die Sprachen Zentral-Amerikas.'' Königliche Museen zu Berlin, D. Reimer, 1920, p. 599.]
Although "Popoluca" and "Popoloca" are derogatory and confusing terms, they are still being used, even in academic literature and official publications of the Mexican government.
See also
* Popolocan languages
The Popolocan languages are a subfamily of the Oto-Manguean language family of Mexico, spoken mainly in the state of Puebla.
The Popolocan languages should not be confused with the languages called Popoluca spoken in the state of Veracruz, whi ...
External links
Popoluca (Popoloca)
America Indian Languages
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Popluca
Mixe–Zoque languages
Indigenous culture of Mexico
Ethnic and religious slurs