Popoluca

Popoluca or Popoloca is a name applied to some indigenous languages of Mexico, the term is however confusing because it used for several different unrelated languages. This page is a disambiguation page that serves to distinguish between the different extensions of the term "Popoloca/Popoluca".

Origin and current use of the terms

The reason for the terms widespread usage for naming indigenous languages is that it is a word from the Nahuatl language meaning "to speak unintelligible" or "gibberish". When Spanish conquistadors 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-Zoquean languages, while the spelling "Popoloca" with an "o" became used for certain languages of the Popolocan family of Oto-Manguean languages. (Note that the name "Popolocan" is also by linguists to refer to that family, which includes varieties of Mazatec.) Now the political climate has changed to favour language names that are either used by the communities themselves or at least are not felt to be derogatory. Some indigenous communities speaking languages called Popoluca feel that this name is unfairly given and carries a derogatory meaning and they prefer other names to be used about them. Below is a list of different varieties of Popoluca and Popoloca and the alternative names that are now beginning to be used for them, at least in some technical and governmental publications. (There are serious issues with the replacement of exonyms by endonyms that are not always taken into consideration.)

Mixe-Zoquean languages called Popoluca

The Mixe-Zoquean family is generally felt to have only two branches: Mixean and Zoquean. Languages bearing the name "Popoluca" therefore should be (strictly speaking) either Zoquean or Mixean, so far as linguists are concerned. This issue is tangential, however, to what the people themselves use to refer to the language.

*Sierra Popoluca is called Zoque Popoluca by the Mexican government, and variously Soteapanec Zoque or Soteapan Zoque or Soteapaneco or Soteapan Soke by different linguists working with the language.
*Oluta Popoluca now called Olutec Mixe or Olutec
*Sayula Popoluca now called Sayultec Mixe or Sayultec
*Texistepec Popoluca now called Texistepec Zoque

Oto-Manguean languages called Popoloca

The Popolocan subgroup of Oto-Mangue includes Chochotec, the Ixcatec language, the Mazatecan languages and the following closely related languages which are still called Popoloca [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=91306] :

*Popoloca de Mezontla
*Popoloca de Coyotepec
*Popoloca de Santa Inés Ahuatempan
*Popoloca de San Marcos Tlalcoyalco
*Popoloca de San Juan Atzingo
*Popoloca de San Felipe Otlaltepec
*Popoloca de San Luís Temalacayuca

These are spoken by around 30,000 people in 7 villages in the south of Puebla near Tehuacan.