 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Tapachultec language" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(September 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Tapachultec | |
|---|---|
| Vebetlateca | |
| Native to | Mexico |
| Region | Chiapas |
| Extinct | 1930s |
Mixe–Zoque
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
qcs | |
| Glottolog | tapa1260 |
Tapachultec is aMixean language spoken inChiapas,Mexico, in the town ofTapachula. It is nowextinct.
In the 16th century, according to the testimony of Spanish friar Alonso Ponce, it was allegedly spoken along much of the Chiapas coast, includingTonalá,Pijijiapan,Mapastepec,Huixtla,Huehuetán, andAyutla. Ponce did not give a name for this language, but described it as similar toZoque, but possessing someYucatec Maya vocabulary. This has been equated with Tapachultec byLyle Campbell. At this time,Nahuatl was used by the speakers of said language to communicate with Spanish authorities. Tapachultec seems to have been termedVebetlateca by Palacio in 1576, which probably refers toHuehuetán given that it was the chief town of the region in that era. By the 17th century, theMam people had migrated to the area after the original population had declined due to epidemics, and theMam language replaced Tapachultec in a few places, such as Ayutla.[1]
Little is known about the language. However according to Otto Shuman, a researcher of linguistics at theNational Autonomous University of Mexico, the language was lost in the 1930s, during the reign ofChiapan Governor Victorico Grajales. Grajales banned the use of indigenous languages in order to attempt to create a stronger bond between Chiapas and the rest of Mexico.
The presence ofMixe-Zoque languages inSoconusco is speculated to go back toIzapa and theMokaya culture. Tapachultec thus is possibly descended from languages spoken by those cultures, and may have been related to extinct varieties of the Pacific coast of Guatemala.
 | This article related to theIndigenous languages of the Americas is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |