The Zoque () languages form a primary branch of the Mixe–Zoquean language family indigenous to southern Mexico by the

Zoque people The Zoque are an Indigenous people of Mexico, who are related to the Mixe. They speak various languages, also called Zoque, which has several branches and dialects. The Zoque consists of 41,609 people, according to the 2000 census. They live ma ...

. Central (Copainalá) Zoque-language programming is carried by the CDI's radio station XECOPA, broadcasting from

Copainalá Copainalá is a town and municipality in the Mexican state of Chiapas in southern Mexico. It covers an area of 330.4 km2. As of 2010, the municipality had a total population of 21,050, up from 19,298 as of 2005. As of 2010, the town of Cop ...

Chiapas Chiapas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises Municipalities of Chiapas, 124 municipalities and its capital and large ...

. There are over 100,000 speakers of Zoque languages. 74,000 people reported their language to be "Zoque" in a 2020 census, and an additional 36,000 reported their language to be Sierra Popoluca. Most of the remaining 8,400 "

Popoluca Popoluca is a Nahuatl term for various Indigenous peoples of southeastern Veracruz and Oaxaca. Many of them (about 30,000

" speakers are presumably also Zoque.Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020
INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020.

Languages

Zoquean languages fall in three groups: *;Gulf Zoquean (Veracruz Zoque) ** Sierra Popoluca (Soteapan Zoque) ** Texistepec Popoluca ** Ayapa Zoque (Tabasco Zoque) *;Oaxacan Zoque ** Chimalapa Zoque (dialects:

Santa María Chimalapa Santa María Chimalapa is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in southeastern Mexico and the easternmost and largest municipality in Oaxaca, but is also the least densely populated municipality in Oaxaca. It is part of the Juchitán District in th ...

, San Miguel Chimalapa) *;

Chiapas Zoque Chiapas Zoque is a dialect cluster of Zoquean languages indigenous to southern Mexico (Wichmann 1995). The three varieties with ISO codes, Francisco León (about 20,000 speakers in 1990), Copainalá (about 10,000), and Rayón (about 2,000), are ...

Copainalá Zoque Chiapas Zoque is a dialect cluster of Zoquean languages indigenous to southern Mexico (Wichmann 1995). The three varieties with ISO codes, Francisco León (about 20,000 speakers in 1990), Copainalá (about 10,000), and Rayón (about 2,000), ar ...

** Francisco León Zoque ** Rayón Zoque (a

dialect cluster A dialect is a variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standardized varieties as well as vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardized varieties, such as those used in developing countries or iso ...

) Justeson and Kaufman also classify Epi-Olmec as a Zoquean language, although this claim is disputed by Andrew Robinson.Robinson, Andrew (2008) ''Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts'', Thames & Hudson, .

Demographics

List of

ISO 639-3 ISO 639-3:2007, ''Codes for the representation of names of languages – Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages'', is an international standard for language codes in the ISO 639 series. It defines three-letter codes for ...

codes and demographic information of Mixean languages from ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...

'' (22nd edition):

References

* Wichmann, Søren, 1995. ''The Relationship Among the Mixe–Zoquean Languages of Mexico''. University of Utah Press. Salt Lake City.

Recordings

Sierra Popoluca Collection of Lynda Boudreault
at the

Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA) is a digital repository housed in LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections at the University of Texas at Austin. AILLA is a digital language archive dedicated to the digi ...

. Contains audio recordings and transcriptions of Zoque and Soteapan in a wide range of genres. Some files are restricted but may be available upon request.

Languages

Demographics

References

Recordings

See also