Ayapa Zoque

{{Short description|Zoquean language of Mexico}}

{{use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}

{{Infobox language

|name = Ayapa Zoque

|altname = Ayapaneco, Tabasco Zoque

|nativename = {{lang|zoq|Nuumte Oote}}

|states = Mexico

|region = Jalpa de Méndez, Tabasco

|speakers = {{sigfig|71|1}}

|date=2020 census

|ref=[http://cuentame.inegi.org.mx/hipertexto/todas_lenguas.htm Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020] INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020.

|familycolor= American

|fam1=Mixe-Zoquean

|fam2=Zoquean

|fam3=Gulf Zoquean

|iso3=zoq

|glotto=taba1264

|glottorefname=Tabasco Zoque

}}

Ayapa Zoque (Ayapaneco), or Tabasco Zoque, is a critically endangered Zoquean language of Ayapa, a village {{convert|10|km|sigfig=1}} southeast of Comalcalco, in Tabasco, Mexico. The native name is {{lang|zoq|Nuumte Oote}} "True Voice".{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/13/mexico-language-ayapaneco-dying-out |title=Language at risk of dying out – the last two speakers aren't talking |newspaper=The Guardian |first=Jo |last=Tuckman |date=2011-04-13 |access-date=2011-04-14 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110426195959/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/13/mexico-language-ayapaneco-dying-out|archive-date= 26 April 2011 |url-status= live}} 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.{{cite journal | last1 = Suslak | first1 = D. F. | year = 2011 | title = Ayapan Echoes: Linguistic Persistence and Loss in Tabasco, Mexico | journal = American Anthropologist | volume = 113 | issue = 4| pages = 569–581 | doi = 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2011.01370.x }} Nowadays{{When|date=July 2024}} there are approximately 15 speakers whose ages range from 67 to 90.{{cite journal | last1 = Rangel | first1 = Jhonnatan | year = 2017 | title = Les derniers locuteurs: au croisement des typologies des locuteurs de langues en danger | trans-title = The last speakers: at the crossroads of the typologies of speakers of endangered languages | lang = fr | url = https://www.hel-journal.org/10.1051/hel/2017390106/pdf| journal = Histoire Épistemologie Langage | volume = 39 | issue = 1| pages = 107–133 | doi = 10.1051/hel/2017390106 | s2cid = 191532808 }} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.indiana.edu/~anthro/people/faculty/suslak.html |title=Daniel Suslak |website=Indiana University |date=2011-02-08 |access-date=2011-04-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110314025714/http://www.indiana.edu/~anthro/people/faculty/suslak.html |archive-date=14 March 2011 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daniel_Suslak|title=Daniel F Suslak |website=ResearchGate|language=en|access-date=2019-08-26}}{{Cite journal|last=Suslak|first=Daniel F.|title=Ayapan Echoes: Linguistic Persistence and Loss in Tabasco, Mexico|url=https://www.academia.edu/1406927|journal=American Anthropologist|language=en|volume=113|issue=4|pages=569–581|issn=0002-7294|doi=10.1111/j.1548-1433.2011.01370.x|year=2011}} 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.{{cite Av media |title=How to save a near-extinct language #First |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4QZx_OMZpA|language=en|access-date=2019-08-26 |via=YouTube |author=Vodafone Deutschland}} 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.{{Cite web |last=Suslak |first=Daniel |date=2014 |title=Who Can Save Ayapaneco? |url=http://stories.schwa-fire.com/who_save_ayapaneco#chapter-113060 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180212135444/http://stories.schwa-fire.com:80/who_save_ayapaneco |archive-date=2018-02-12 |access-date=2017-05-22 |website=Schwa Fire}}{{Cite news|url=http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2014/09/22/actualidad/1411404288_888925.html|title=Cuando muramos, morirá el idioma|last=Ahrens|first=Jan Martínez|date=2014-09-23|work=EL PAÍS|access-date=2017-05-22|language=es|trans-title=When we die, so too will our language}}{{Cite web|url=https://medium.com/news-to-table/vodafone-virality-and-the-vanishing-voice-that-wasnt-8c16e1fbe61a|title=Vodafone, Virality and the Vanishing Voice That Wasn't|date=2019-12-11|website=Medium|language=en|access-date=2019-12-12}} A PhD dissertation on Ayapa Zoque at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO) appeared in 2019,{{Cite thesis |title=Variations linguistiques et langue en danger. Le cas du numte ʔoote ou zoque ayapaneco dans l'Etat de Tabasco, Mexique |url=https://www.theses.fr/2019INAL0001 |location=Paris |publisher=INALCO |date=2019-10-03 |degree=PhD |first=Jhonnatan |last=Rangel Murueta}} and an orthography designed to better facilitate the development of pedagogical materials and education of new learners is under development.{{Cite journal |last=Rangel |first=Jhonnatan |date=September 2020 |title=Writing for the future of Ayapaneco: An orthography for heritage and new speakers of a critically endangered language |url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02950079 |journal=Foundation for Endangered Languages Annual Conference: FEL24 |location=London (on line), United Kingdom}}