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Tektiteko
Data collected by UNICEF
Data on Tektiteko
Alternative names: Tectiteco, Teko, Tektitèque, Tektitek
Area: Guatemala.
Tektiteko speakers reside principally in the Tectitán region, in the municipality of Huehuetenango, in a mountainous region on the Mexican border.
According to INALI, there are also speakers on the other side of the border, in the state of Chiapas in Mexico.
Classification: Tektiteko is part of the Mamean branch of the Mayan language family. It is very close to Mam, Awakateko and Ixil, other languages of the same branch.
Number of speakers: It is difficult to get a precise idea; however, Tektiteko is one the Mayan languages with the fewest speakers. Figures vary according to source from 1144 people (UNESCO) to almost 6000 (Ethnologue.com).
A census of 2002 gives a Tektiteko population of around 2000 people, but it is not known whether all are speakers of the language.
Language status: According to the Linguamón website:
“Legally recognised. Guatemala’s constitution identifies Spanish as the country’s official language and states that its ‘vernaculars’ are part of its cultural heritage. A number of initiatives have been carried out in recent years (such as the introduction of the Ley de Idiomas Nacionales or National Language Law in 2003) to protect and promote the use of the languages of the Maya, Garifuna and Xinca peoples.”
Tektiteko is one of the languages standardised, protected and promoted by the Academy of Mayan Languages of Guatemala, an independent organisation created in 1990.
Vitality and transmission: Due to its small number of speakers, Tektiteko is probably one of the most threatened Mayan languages. It is also one of the least-studied languages and there is a great lack in scientific data on this language. Several Spanish loanwords are used in Tektiteko as it is spoken today.
Several sources (Ethnologue and Linguamón, amongst others) describe an ongoing transmission of Tektiteko to younger generations, who have regained interest in the language. There is still much to be done, though, to ensure the future of the language.
Tektiteko is one of the endangered languages documented as part of Sorosoro’s video documentation programme. Filming took place in 2009, in collaboration with the linguist Juventino de Jesus Pérez Alonzo.
See videos about Tektiteko on the Sorosoro website
Sources
Verdugo, Lucía. 2010. « Guatemala ». In Atlas sociolingüístico de pueblos indígenas en América Latina, UNICEF. Tome 2, pp Pp 852- 888
Online sources
Page dedicated to Tektiteko on the Linguamón website
Supplementary Bibliography
Grinevald, C. 2007 «Endangered Languages of Mexico and Central America», in Brenzinger, M. (ed.), Language Diversity Endangered, Trends in Linguistics, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin-New York.
See the Atlas sociolingüístico de pueblos indígenas en América Latina for a more complete bibliography.
Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have more information on this language: contact@sorosoro.org