Data on Ayapaneco

Alternative names: Nuumte Oote, Ayapanec, Tabasco Zoque, Ayapa Zoque, Ayapa.

The name « Ayapaneco » was proposed by the INALI, « Nuumte Oote » (« the real voice ») is the self-designation, « Tabasco Zoque » was proposed by the 16th edition of the Ethnologue, and « Ayapa Zoque » by L. Campbell (1997).

Classification: Mixe-Zoquean family, Zoque sub-family, Zoque branch of the Veracruz Gulf.

Classification based on Campbell (1997). There seems to be no consensus on the intern classification of the Mixe-Zoquean languages, although there is no doubt on the kinship between the two great sub-families (Mixe and Zoque).

Besides, different sources may provide different information, especially regarding the name of the language.

Geographical area: Ayapa, municipality of Jalpa de Mendez, State of Tabasco, Mexico.

Number of speakers:

According to Wichmann (2007) there are no longer but two native speakers of Ayapaneco: Manuel Segovia, age 75, and Isidro Velazquez, 69. Plus three additional passive speakers (Manuel Segovia’s wife and children).

The Guardian published an article on these two last speakers in April 2011.

Language status:

According to Linguamón: « Spanish is the official language of Mexico. The linguistic legislation is rather profuse in terms of indigenous languages. One of these texts worth noting is the General law on the linguistic rights of indigenous peoples, operative since 2001, and aiming for the acknowledgment and protection of the individual and collective linguistic rights of indigenous communities, as well as for the promotion, use and development of indigenous languages bearing the status of « national language ». In fact, however, the Mexican linguistic model tends more towards assimilating indigenous languages and cultures, than promoting them. »

Vitality & transmission:

Ayapaneco is on the brink of extinction. It is believed there are only two elder speakers left, plus the family members of one of those two speakers (Manuel Segovia), considered as passive speakers, thus unable to transmit the language.

Indiana University linguist anthropologist Daniel Suslak is currently working on the creation of an Ayapaneco dictionary.

Sociolinguistic observations

Spanish schooling since the mid-20th century, the children being forbidden to speak indigenous languages, and the urbanization and economic migrations of rural indigenous communities than began in the 1970s, all led to rapid neglect of numerous indigenous languages of Mexico. Ayapaneco is one of the languages that has suffered the most. According to Ethnologue.com, there were still around forty speakers of Ayapaneco in the beginning of the 1970s.

Online resources

Data collected by the UNICEF on Ayapaneco (in Spanish)

Data collected by the UNESCO on Ayapaneco

Ethnologue webpage on Ayapaneco (here, Tabasco Zoque)

Ayapaneco-French-English glossary

INALI website (in Spanish)

Bibliography

Campbell, Lyle. 1997. American Indian languages: the historical linguistics of Native America. Oxford University Press. Oxford

Wichmann, Søren. 1995. The Relationship among the Mixe-Zoquean Languages of Mexico. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.

Wichmann, Søren. 2007. Un panorama de las lenguas indígenas de México. In: Bob de Jonge (ed.): Las lenguas de México. México en Movimiento, vol. 11: 111-140.  Actas del XI día de mexicanistas de Holanda 11 de noviembre de 2005. Groningen: Groningen University. [PDF]