Fighting Off Extinction: The Story of Indigenous Mexican Languages (fwd link)

[Phillip E Cash Cash]

*Fighting Off Extinction: The Story of Indigenous Mexican Languages*

Rick Kearns
4/14/14

Mexico has 60 indigenous languages in danger of disappearing with 21 of
those idioms in critical danger due to dwindling numbers of native speakers
and other factors but reports of the imminent demise of the Ayapaneco
language, which is on the critical list, are premature.

There are at least 6 million indigenous people who are speaking an
indigenous language in Mexico, including approximately 1.6 million people
who speak Nahuatl and 796,000 Mayan speakers. While these larger groups are
gaining some momentum, with more and more books and literature being
produced in the languages, others are in danger.

In late March, Mexican scholars were quoted as saying that of the country's
143 Native languages, 21 are in critical danger of disappearing, meaning
that they have less than 200 speakers. Among the most critical are Kiliwa
of Baja California that has 36 speakers, and Ayapaneco from Tabasco that is
spoken by two adults.

​Access full article below:
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/04/14/fighting-extinction-story-indigenous-mexican-languages-154431
​
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ilat/attachments/20140414/2423b74e/attachment.htm>