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Ayapa Zoque (Ayapaneco), or Tabasco Zoque, is a critically endangered Zoquean language of Ayapa, a village 10 kilometres (6 mi) southeast of Comalcalco, in Tabasco, Mexico. The native name is Nuumte Oote "True Voice". A vibrant, albeit minority, language until the middle of the 20th century, the language suffered after the introduction of compulsory education in Spanish, urbanisation, and migration of its speakers. Nowadays there are approximately 15 speakers whose ages range from 67 to 90. In 2010 a story started circulating that the last two speakers of the Ayapaneco language were enemies and no longer talked to each other. The story was incorrect, and while it was quickly corrected it came to circulate widely.

Daniel Suslak, an assistant professor of anthropology at Indiana University, is one of the linguists working to prepare the first dictionary of the language. Since 2012, the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (INALI, also known as the National Indigenous Languages Institute) has been supporting the Ayapa community's efforts at revitalising their language. In 2013 Vodafone launched an advertisement campaign in which they claimed to have helped the community revitalize the language, proposing an erroneous story of enmity between Don Manuel and Don Isidro. The commercial appeared on YouTube. According to Suslak and other observers the actual help provided to Ayapan and the Ayapaneco language by Vodafone was extremely limited and did not address the actual necessities of the community. A PhD dissertation on Ayapa Zoque at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO) appeared in 2019, and an orthography designed to better facilitate the development of pedagogical materials and education of new learners is under development.

See also

• Language death

References

1. Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020 INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020.
2. ^ Tuckman, Jo (13 April 2011). "Language at risk of dying out – the last two speakers aren't talking". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 April 2011. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
3. Suslak, D. F. (2011). "Ayapan Echoes: Linguistic Persistence and Loss in Tabasco, Mexico". American Anthropologist. 113 (4): 569–581. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1433.2011.01370.x.
4. Rangel, Jhonnatan (2017). "Les derniers locuteurs: au croisement des typologies des locuteurs de langues en danger" [The last speakers: at the crossroads of the typologies of speakers of endangered languages]. Histoire Épistemologie Langage (in French). 39 (1): 107–133. doi:10.1051/hel/2017390106. S2CID 191532808.
5. ^ Suslak, Daniel (2014). "Who Can Save Ayapaneco?". Schwa Fire. Archived from the original on 12 February 2018. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
6. "Daniel Suslak". Indiana University. 8 February 2011. Archived from the original on 14 March 2011. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
7. "Daniel F Suslak". ResearchGate. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
8. Suslak, Daniel F. (2011). "Ayapan Echoes: Linguistic Persistence and Loss in Tabasco, Mexico". American Anthropologist. 113 (4): 569–581. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1433.2011.01370.x. ISSN 0002-7294.
9. Vodafone Deutschland. How to save a near-extinct language #First. Retrieved 26 August 2019 – via YouTube.
10. Ahrens, Jan Martínez (23 September 2014). "Cuando muramos, morirá el idioma" [When we die, so too will our language]. EL PAÍS (in Spanish). Retrieved 22 May 2017.
11. "Vodafone, Virality and the Vanishing Voice That Wasn't". Medium. 11 December 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
12. Rangel Murueta, Jhonnatan (3 October 2019). Variations linguistiques et langue en danger. Le cas du numte ʔoote ou zoque ayapaneco dans l'Etat de Tabasco, Mexique (PhD thesis). Paris: INALCO.
13. Rangel, Jhonnatan (September 2020). "Writing for the future of Ayapaneco: An orthography for heritage and new speakers of a critically endangered language". Foundation for Endangered Languages Annual Conference: FEL24. London (on line), United Kingdom.

Further reading

• "Ayapaneco language about to disappear because the only two persons who know it do not speak to each other". Pueblos America.
• Ho, Erica (18 April 2011). "Last Two Speakers of Dying Language Refuse to Talk to Each Other". Time.
• "Last 2 Speakers Of Dying Language Won't Speak To Each Other". Huffington Post. 14 April 2011.
• Rangel, Jhonnatan (19 May 2016). "How many speakers of Ayapa Zoque? in". Where's the Last Speaker?. doi:10.58079/vaq6. ISSN 2494-2073.
• Suslak, Daniel F. (2011). "Ayapan Echoes: Linguistic Persistence and Loss in Tabasco, Mexico". AnthroSource. 113 (4): 569–581. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1433.2011.01370.x.
• Tuckman, Jo (15 April 2011). "Duo's Mexican standoff bodes ill for language on verge of extinction". Sydney Morning Herald.

External links

• "Indiana University Minority Languages & Cultures of Latin America & the Caribbean Program".
• "National Indigenous Languages Institute" (in Spanish).
• "Vocabulario de la lengua zoque de Tapijulapa" (in Spanish).

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