1. Triqui
There are about 25,000 speakers of Triqui, with most of the speakers being indigenous people of the western part of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. The language is also spoken in Baja California; native speakers are typically ethnically Trique. Somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 Triqui speakers have immigrated to the US, with communities in California, New York, and Washington state. There are four major varieties for Triqui: Triqui Bajo, Triqui Alto, Triqui Media, and Triqui de Copala with Triqui de Copala having the most speakers. There are also Triqui-language radio programs based in San Quintin, Baja California, and XETLA (an indigenous community radio station).

2. Mixteco
This is another Oto-Manguean set of languages, and is spoken by about 530,000 people from Oaxaca, Peubla, and Geurrero, Mexico. Immigrants from these areas can typically be found in New York, Arizona, and throughout California such as Baja, San Diego. Though people might think of Mixteco as a single language, some estimate that there are thirty or fifty variations of the language. Typically when they speak to each other though, they use Spanish, so even if they do not speak the same variation, they can communicate with each other.

3. Zapotec
Zapotec has about 490,000 native speakers with the majority of speakers in the United States based in California and New Jersey. The Mexican government officially recognizes sixty Zapotec dialects, and since there can be so much variance between them, it can be difficult for different dialect speakers to understand each other. However, most Zapotec speakers know Spanish as well, so they are still able to communicate with each other.

4. Purepecha/Tarasco
This is an indigenous language that is centered in the northwestern region of Michoacan, Mexico with a total population of about 141,177. In the United States, you can find most speakers in California, Oregon, and Washington. Purepecha is considered an endangered language due to the rate of speakers becoming bilingual rising with less than 10% of speakers being monolingual. Tarasco is another name for Purepecha, which comes from the fact that Tarasca is an exonym for Purepecha culture.

5. Nahuatl
This is a language where most of the speakers are in Central Mexico, but there are speakers of the language in the United States as well, primarily in California where it is the fourth indigenous language of Mexico, trailing Mixteco, Zapotec, and Triqui. The communities that speak the languages are mostly scattered and in rural areas, but there are over a million speakers, most of whom are Mexican immigrants from indigenous communities and Chicanos. Overall though, the exact number of speakers is unknown.

6. Chatino
Similarly, Chatino is another subset within Oto-Manguean languages, and it also originates from Oaxaca, Mexico. Chatino is at a high risk of disappearance, with between 30,000 and 45,000 native speakers. There are three languages that are a part of Chatino: Zenzontepec, Tataltepec, and Easter Chatino. Overall, the Chatinos have cultural and linguistic ties with Zapotec and is recognized as a national language in Mexico.

With that being said, we are sad to see that some languages are in fact going extinct. Google is doing their part as a worldwide service to provide these languages a lifeline:

As Google sees it, documenting the 3,000-plus languages that are on the verge of extinction — about half of all languages in the world — is an important step in preserving cultural diversity, honoring the knowledge of elders and empowering youth. And Google sees technology’s role in strengthening those efforts through research and collaboration.

This collaboration is through a website www.endangeredlanguages.com where people can upload the languages and share the most up-to-date information about them. An example is seen in the Miami-Illinois language, once spoken by Native American communities throughout the region. Although the last known person who spoke this language died in 1960, a contributor to the project is teaching himself the language through old documents. Because of this, children in Miami are now learning the language and even teaching it to each other.

If you know a language that is becoming extinct, post it in the comments or through the website and we will all do our best to preserve the language. Also, check out the video below to learn more about the project.

Information from: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/endangered-languages-project-supporting.html

Image from: http://www.endangeredlanguages.com

There are an estimated 40,000 people who are fluent in Triqui worldwide. More than half of them no longer live in Oaxaca and around 10 percent of them live right next door in the Salinas Valley.

Although institutions like Monterey Language Services provide translation services in courts and hospitals, there is still worry that this rare language will not survive.  Any attempt to save a language will have to be in large numbers in order to succeed.

Barbara Hollenbach, who works with the Summer Institute of Linguistics, is working on a Triqui-Spanish dictionary with 6,000 entries. She believes this is a step in the right direction but says, “The only way to keep a language alive is oral transmission between generations.”

Source : http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/news/2012/jun/07/speaking-minds/

Note:

The picture, which shows traditional Triqui weaving patterns, is from one of our colleague’s private collection. The artwork was created by a Triqui artisan group here in our area of Monterey County.     

In our community, other languages indigenous to Oaxacan Mexico are spoken, including Mixteco, Zappotec, Chatino, & Nahuatl, etc. These languages need to be preserved as well.

Marina, Calif. – October 17, 2011 – Monterey Language Services (http://www.montereylanguages.com) today announced that it has served 50 new clients in the last 15 months, as the interpretation and translation company continues rapid growth in a sluggish economy.

Through its contracts, Monterey Language Services, located in the Marina Technology Cluster, Marina’s business incubator, has provided interpretation services to many people in the county who have limited English proficiency.

“Just through our contract with Natividad Medical Center alone, we have served hundreds of patients whose first languages are Spanish, Chinese, Korean or other indigenous languages such as Mixteco, Triqui, Zapoteco, and Chatino,” said CEO Mei-Ling Chen.  “We have also been able to assist persons who communicate through American Sign Language.”

Monterey Language Services’ ability to provide interpretation for over 175 languages and dialects is the key to their rapid growth, according to Chen.  In one day, the company handled 19 languages through several contracts.  The largest number of different languages translated on a single project was 18.  The company has access to 2,000 translators world wide and has contracted with nearly 100 so far.

Chen, a graduate of the Monterey Institute of International Studies, attributes the company’s success to the high quality of their translation and interpretation services.  In a bad economy, says Chen, what is needed is to be resourceful, dynamic, flexible and efficient.  Chen is pro-active in reaching out to researchers, community leaders, and people in indigenous towns around the world to get to know interpreters speaking different kinds of languages.

The clients of Monterey Language Services include embassies who help citizens conduct business in the area, law offices who hold depositions, and corporations such as Hewlett-Packard who want to find the best language interpretation support for their most important foreign customers.

“And they found us here right in Monterey,” said Chen, “the language capital of the world.”