Tapachultec language

Tapachultec
Native to	Mexico
Region	Chiapas
Extinct	1930s
Language family	Mixe–Zoque Mixean Tapachultec
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Linguist List	qcs
Glottolog	tapa1260

Tapachultec was a Mixe language spoken in Chiapas, Mexico. It is now extinct. Spoken in the area around modern-day Tapachula, Chiapas it is part of the Mixe–Zoquean language family.

Little is known about the language. However according to Otto Shuman, a researcher of linguistics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the language was lost in the 1930s, during the reign of Chiapan Governor Victorico Grajales. Grajales banned the use of indigenous languages in order to attempt to create a stronger bond between Chiapas and the rest of Mexico.

A Mixean language is recorded as having been spoken in the El Salvador-Guatemala border area, in between Pipil populations; this may have been the same language as Tapachultec or related.

References

• Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics, no. 4. William Bright (series general ed.) (OUP paperback [2000] ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1. OCLC 32923907.
• Orellana, Sandra Lee (1995). Ethnohistory of the Pacific Coast. illus. by Fred Folger. Lancaster, CA: Labyrinthos. ISBN 0-911437-33-9. OCLC 33487059.
• Sapper, Karl (1897). Das nördliche Mittel-Amerika nebst einem Ausflug nach dem Hochland von Anahuac (in German). Braunschweig, Germany: Friedrich Vieweg und Sohn. ISBN 9780520248120. OCLC 70337620.
• Thomas, Cyrus (1911). Indian Languages of Mexico and Central America and their Geographical Distribution (digitized facsimile at Internet Archive). Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin, no. 44. Assisted by John R. Swanton. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. ISBN 0-7812-4044-1. OCLC 850983.