Popoluca is a

Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

term for various Indigenous peoples of southeastern

Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...

and

Oaxaca Oaxaca, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca, is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of the Mexico, United Mexican States. It is divided into municipalities of Oaxaca, 570 munici ...

. Many of them (about 30,000"The Popoluca."
''University of Minnesota, Mankota E-museum.'' (retrieved 1 Feb 2011)) speak languages of the Mixe–Zoque family. Others speak the unrelated

Mazatecan languages The Mazatecan languages are a group of closely related Mesoamerican languages, indigenous languages spoken by some 200,000 people in the area known as the Sierra Mazateca, which is in the northern part of the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, ...

, in which case the name in English and Spanish is generally spelled Popoloca.

Various peoples called Popoluca

The Mixe–Zoque languages called Popoluca are, * Mixean :* Oluta Popoluca (Olutec Mixe or Olutec) :*

Sayula Popoluca Sayula Popoluca, also called Sayultec, is a Mixe language spoken by around 5,000 indigenous people in and around the town of Sayula de Alemán in the southern part of the state of Veracruz, Mexico. Almost all published research on the language ...

(Sayultec Mixe or Sayultec) * Zoque :*

San Andrés Tuxtla San Andrés Tuxtla is a city and Municipalities of Veracruz, municipality in the south of the Mexico, Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Veracruz. The city is the largest in the Los Tuxtlas region. It was founded after an eruption of the Sa ...

:* Sierra Popoluca (Soteapanec Zoque, Soteapan Zoque, Soteapaneco, or Soteapan Soke) :* Texistepec Popoluca (Texistepec Zoque) :* Zoque Popoluca Among the

Oto-Manguean languages The Oto-Manguean or Otomanguean () languages are a large family comprising several subfamilies of indigenous languages of the Americas. All of the Oto-Manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but the Manguean branch of th ...

, there are, * the Popoloca languages, and * the Popolocan languages, their containing group. The

Xincan languages Xinca (or ''Xinka'', Sinca, or ''Szinca'') is a small extinct family of Mesoamerican languages; formerly, the language was regarded as a single language isolate. Xinca was once spoken by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous Xinca p ...

have also historically been referred to as Popoluca.

Origin and current use of the terms

The reason for the terms' widespread usage for naming Indigenous languages is that they are derogatory words from the

language, meaning "to speak unintelligibly" or "babble". When the Spanish invaders asked their Nahuatl-speaking allies what language was spoken in a particular locality, the Nahuas would reply "popoloca" meaning in essence "not Nahuatl". The Nahuas used the term "popolōca" much in the same way the Greek used the term " barbaros", also meaning "gibberish", to refer to non-Greek speaking strangers. The name however stuck to many languages and has caused some confusion even among linguists working with Native American languages. This confusion prompted some kind of distinction between Popoluca languages and the spelling "Popoluca" with an "u" became used for certain

Mixe–Zoque languages The Mixe–Zoque (also Mixe–Zoquean, Mije–Soke, Mije–Sokean) languages are a language family whose living members are spoken in and around the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico. The Mexican government recognizes three distinct Mixe–Zoquean ...

, while the spelling "Popoloca" with an "o" became used for certain languages of the Popolocan family of

. Note that the name "Popolocan" is also used by linguists to refer to these languages, which include varieties of Mazatec. In

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

, the Nahua-speaking Nicarao used the term "Popoluca" for the speakers of the Matagalpa language.D. Victor Jesus Noguera, Cura de Matagalpa: Vocabulario de la Lengua Popoluca de Matagalpa, 1855. In: Walter Lehmann, ''Die Sprachen Zentral-Amerikas.'' Königliche Museen zu Berlin, D. Reimer, 1920, p. 599. Although "Popoluca" and "Popoloca" are derogatory and confusing terms, they are still being used, even in academic literature and official publications of the Mexican government.

External links

Popoluca (Popoloca)
America Indian Languages

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Popluca Mixe–Zoque languages Indigenous culture of Mexico Ethnic and religious slurs

Various peoples called Popoluca

Origin and current use of the terms

See also

External links

References