Last two speakers of dying language won't talk to each other
Like many languages spoken by indigenous people, Ayapaneco is dying. Only two people still speak it — and they won't talk to each other.
Spoken in Mexico for centuries, Ayapeneco is one of 68 surviving indigenous languages in the mostly-Spanish speaking nation. The two speakers are Manuel Segovia (pictured on the right), 75, and Isidro Velazquez, 69, and despite living only 500 metres from each other in the village of Ayapa the two men refuse to communicate.
While Segovia denies any ill-will toward Velasquez, others say they have never enjoyed spending time together.
In an interview with The Guardian, Daniel Suslak, a U.S. anthropologist who is working to make a dictionary of Ayapaneco, said the two men "don't have a lot in common," and that Segovia can be "prickly" while Velasquez tends to mind his own business and stay at home.
While Segovia still speaks to his wife and son in Ayapaneco, neither of them can manage more than a few words. Velasquez reportedly barely speaks his native tongue at all anymore.
Suslak is working to preserve the language in dictionary form before its last surviving speakers pass away. According to Suslak, Ayapaneco and other indigenous languages began dying out with the introduction of public Spanish eduction in the mid-20th century. For decades, indigenous children were prohibited from speaking anything else. The mass migration to cities, starting in the 1970s, also contributed to the decline of native tongues.
Ayapaneco is the name given to the language by outsiders, Segovia and Velazquez call it Nuumte Oote, which translates to "true voice." Neither man, however, speaks the language identically. The dictionary will contain two version of the language when it is released later this year.
Those behind the dictionary aren't the only ones trying to save Ayapaneco. The National Indigenous Language Institute plans to to try and conduct classes so that Segovia and Velasquez can pass on what they know to the next generation. Attempts in the past have been met with a lack of enthusiasm from locals.
It is thought that there are roughly 6,000 languages spoken on Earth and that approximately half will disappear over the next 100 years. Let's hope the "true voice" isn't one of them.
(Photo courtesy of The National Indigenous Language Institute/YouTube)
