Mazahua

 This week I learned about Mazahua. Mazahua is an indigenous language from Oaxaca. However it is disappearing and according to the article it has lost already over 10% of speakers in just ten years. Mazahua is projected to have no fluent speakers in two generations. The article says the speakers went from 133,000 to 111,000. 

This language seems really interesting though. It even has a unique calendar, with 15 months and 5 day weeks. The article also mentions that sometimes it is linguistically more appropriate to use the word, "Variety" instead of "Dialect". Mazahua is also a tonal language, like Mandarin Chinese. 

The author of the article also visited San Pablo in Oaxaca, and there she talks about her experience with the local speakers. It was said to her that when purchasing medicine, a Mazahua speaker will only tell you what its for. But that Speaking Mazahua with her will get her you explain much more, as Mazahua is a language that forms a connection for locals. 

Author: Lynda Boudreault    Photographer: Gavin Seim

https://unravellingmag.com/articles/mazahua-text-tone-tradition/