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Ayapan Echoes: Linguistic Persistence and Loss in Tabasco, Mexico
Author(s) -
Suslak Daniel F.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2011.01370.x
Subject(s) - indigenous , persistence (discontinuity) , circulation (fluid dynamics) , linguistics , history , indigenous language , media studies , sociology , engineering , philosophy , ecology , geotechnical engineering , biology , aerospace engineering
Ayapaneco is an indigenous Mexican language that—according to a widely circulating story—is dying because its last two fluent speakers refuse to speak to each other. In 2006–07, their case was publicized by Mexico's National Indigenous Language Institute (INALI), picked up by several international news agencies, broadcast on television, and repeated in various media. In this article, I examine the circulation of the Ayapaneco story and its unexpected consequences for the two speakers and the town of Ayapa as well as for other interested parties.