{"id":66574,"date":"2015-09-04T16:23:23","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T14:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/?p=66574"},"modified":"2025-10-21T22:01:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:01:51","slug":"when-speakers-are-missing-the-zapara-school-in-ecuador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/2015\/09\/when-speakers-are-missing-the-zapara-school-in-ecuador\/","title":{"rendered":"When speakers are missing\u2026 The z\u00e1para school in Ecuador"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\nAnne-Ga\u00ebl Bilhaut is an anthropologist. She has carried out a PhD study on the Z\u00e1para ethnic group (ended in 2007), thanks to grants from the EREA Center (CNRS), the Legs Lelong and the Mus\u00e9e du Quai Branly. Her research has focused on the production of the intangible heritage of this amazonian people. Today she discusses the issue of language transmission among z\u00e1paras.<\/em>
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\nZ\u00e1paras are estimated at less than 500<\/strong>. A \u00ab small people \u00bb, as they call themselves, that has gained international attention in 2001 after the UNESCO proclaimed the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. What earned them this honour was their effort in promoting their language and culture in Ecuador.
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\nZ\u00e1paras live in the North-West of the amazonian rainforest,<\/strong> along the Upper Tigre river in Peru, and Pindoyacu and Conambo rivers in Ecuador. There are only 6 speakers of the z\u00e1para language (zaparoan linguistic group) left in the country, and today conversations are carried on in kichwa.
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\nIn 2000, Ecuadorians created the DIENASE (Direcci\u00f3n de Educaci\u00f3n de la Nacionalidad S\u00e1para del Ecuador). Their aim was to found a new system of trilingual education<\/strong> in z\u00e1para, kichwa and spanish. Built on the will to reclaim the z\u00e1para language and reassert its value, it puts an important emphasis on the teachings of fathers and mothers (in particular : knowledge of plants, training in basketwork and ceramics).
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\nTo offer a trilingual education when only 6 elders scattered in distant villages actually speak the language is a challenge that Z\u00e1paras probably underestimated.<\/strong> At first, it was the elders who gave language classes, especially of vocabulary and singing. Then the young people ended secondary school, and some registered at the university. One of them even presented a dissertation on z\u00e1para for his bachelor degree.
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\nIn reality, due to the very low number of speakers, the z\u00e1para school in the villages is not really trilingual. It is rather bilingual in kichwa and spanish. Since it proved impossible to provide education directly in their original language, it was finally decided that a curriculum both on the z\u00e1para language and the z\u00e1para people<\/strong> should be opted for. In order to achieve this, they train, imagine and elaborate teaching tools, hoping that one day they will master their language again. What is certain is that they had never spoken about it so much ; they now even have an opinion on its writing.