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, 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 (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 language of the Zoquean branch spoken by a hundred indigenous Popoluca people in and around the town of Texistepec in Southern Veracruz, Mex ...

(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, 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

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", 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

. Note that the name "Popolocan" is also used by linguists to refer to these languages, which include varieties of Mazatec. 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.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