Popoluca is a Nahuatl 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 :*

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 (Sayultec Mixe or Sayultec) * Zoque :* San Andrés Tuxtla :* Sierra Popoluca (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, 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, wh ...

, 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 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, while the spelling "Popoloca" with an "o" became used for certain languages of the Popolocan family of

. 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 countr ...

, 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.

External links

Popoluca (Popoloca)
America Indian Languages

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Popluca Mixe–Zoque languages Indigenous culture of Mexico Ethnic and religious slurs

Various peoples called Popoluca

Origin and current use of the terms

See also

External links

References