Sierra Popoluca

Sierra Popoluca
Soteapanec
Nuntajɨyi
Native toMexico
RegionVeracruz
Native speakers
36,000 (2020 census)[1]
Mixe–Zoquean
  • Zoquean
    • Gulf Zoquean
      • Sierra Popoluca
Official status
Regulated byINALI
Language codes
ISO 639-3poi
Glottologhigh1276
ELPSierra Popoluca
Linguasphere69-HAB-aa
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Sierra Popoluca, also known as Soteapanec, Soteapan Zoque, or Highland Popoluca, is a developing Mixe-Zoquean language of the Zoquean branch.[2] It has 35,050 speakers (INALI, 2009)[3] who live in the southern part of Veracruz, Mexico. Sierra Popoluca has two sister languages, Texistepec and Ayapanec, both of which are severely endangered.[4]

The word popoluca means "gibberish” in Nahuatl, and the name Sierra Popoluca comes from the language being labelled as such at the time of conquest. To avoid the derogatory connotations of popoluca, some researchers have adopted the name Soteapanec for the language instead (named after the largest municipality it is spoken in). However, modern speakers do not seem to be concerned with the history of the word and simply see it as the name of their language.[5] Natively, speakers refer to the language as Nuntajɨyi, which means "true word," and themselves as Nundajɨypappɨc.[citation needed]

  1. ^ Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020 INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020.
  2. ^ "Popoluca, Highland". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2019-04-19.
  3. ^ INALI (2009). Catálogo de las Lenguas Indígenas Nacionales: Variantes Lingüísticas de México con sus autodenominaciones y referencias geoestadísticas. México.
  4. ^ Boudreault 2018, p. 7.
  5. ^ Boudreault 2018, p. 4.