Popoluca is a Nahuatl term for various indigenous peoples of southeastern Veracruz and Oaxaca. Many of them (about 30,000[1]) speak languages of the Mixe–Zoque family. Others speak the unrelated Mazatecan languages, in which case the name in English and Spanish is generally spelled Popoloca.

Various peoples called Popoluca

The Mixe–Zoque languages called Popoluca are,

Among the Oto-Manguean languages, there are,

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 Nahuatl language, meaning "to speak unintelligibly" or "babble".[2] 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.[3]

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, 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 used by linguists to refer to these languages, which include varieties of Mazatec.[2] In Nicaragua, the Nahua-speaking Nicarao used the term "Popoluca" for the speakers of the Matagalpa language.[4]

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.[5]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "The Popoluca." Archived 2010-06-04 at the Wayback Machine University of Minnesota, Mankota E-museum. (retrieved 1 Feb 2011)
  2. 1 2 "Summer Institute of Linguistics in Mexico: Confusion about the names "Popoloca" and "Popoluca"". Archived from the original on 2010-09-05. Retrieved 2011-04-22.
  3. ↑ Popoloca Indian Language (Popoloco) – native-languages.org
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ "Flora medicinal popoloca de San Marcos Tlacoyalco y San Juan Atzingo, Puebla". MedicinaTradicionalMexicana.UNAM.mx (in Mexican Spanish). nd. Archived from the original on 23 March 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
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