La lengua zapoteca y su proceso de revitalizacion, Sierra Juarez, Oaxaca, México

Abstract

This article addresses the sociocultural factors that are influencing the revitalization of the Zapotec language in the Sierra Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico. These factors are influencing a gradual change in terms of attitude towards the original language, in this case  the Zapotec language. This has given rise to a linguistic resistance against the linguistic displacement from the extension of Spanish in different communicative spaces. It also addresses the way in which the Zapotec language is recovering some communicative functions in some spaces (school, radio, public spaces, church, etc.), giving rise to a process of revitalization of it. The opinions of the parents on the importance and function of the native language and Spanish at the family and community level are also taken into account, where a clear vision of the function of each of these languages is observed by the users. It should be noted that it is a change that occurs from the communities, it requires a change of sociolinguistic attitude of society in general with respect to the original languages. Another aspect that is addressed is the role played by the school in this process of revitalization, what it does and what parents think about the use of the original language in the classroom and literacy in this language in contrast to the Spanish.