On top of that, the refusal to speak to each other is so interesting.
Sent to you by Dana via Google Reader:
Lost In No Translation of the Day: Ayapaneco, or Nuumte Oote (the True Voice) as it's known among its speakers, is an extremely endangered language. How extreme? There are only two known speakers — and they refuse to speak to each other.
One of the 68 indigenous languages that survived Mexico's conquest by Spain, Ayapaneco is currently spoken by only two men: 75-year-old Manuel Segovia and 69-year-old Isidro Velazquez. Though they live a mere 500 meters apart in the village of Ayapa, Segovia and Velazquez broke off communication a long time ago, and no one knows why.
"They don't have a lot in common," linguistic anthropologist Daniel Suslak of Indiana University told The Guardian. Segovia himself denied "any active animosity" between himself an Velazquez, but did not elaborate on why the two don't talk.
While Velazquez has reportedly stopped using the language all together, Segovia occasionally speaks with his wife and son, but, though they understand him, they are far from fluent. Suslak and the National Indigenous Language Institute are both involved in last-ditch efforts to preserve the language, but previous attempts to pass it on to locals have failed.
"I bought pencils and notebooks myself," Segovia says. "The classes would start off full and then the pupils would stop coming."
[guardian.]
Tagged: Ayapaneco, Endangered Language, Lost In No Translation
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