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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Americas > Mexico > Zapotec, Xanaguía

Zapotec, Xanaguía

A language of Mexico

ISO 639-3ztg

Population  2,500 (1990 census). 35% monolingual, mainly older women.
Region  Oaxaca, southeast Miahuatlán: Santa Catarina Xanaguía, San Francisco Ozolotepec, and San José Ozolotepec.
Language map  Southern Central Mexico, reference number 283
Alternate names   Diidz Zë, Zapoteco de Santa Catarina Xanaguía
Dialects  A few phonological and lexical differences between San Francisco and San José areas.
Classification  Oto-Manguean, Zapotecan, Zapotec
A member of macrolanguage Zapotec [zap] (Mexico).
Language use  Vigorous. Very few users of other languages married into it and speak it. Home, local administration, commerce, religion. All ages. Positive attitude. 20% have some degree of fluency in Spanish. San Francisco reportedly more monolingual than Santa Catarina, and San José the most bilingual. Some use other varieties of Zapotec.
Language development  Literacy rate in L1: 1%. Literacy rate in L2: 10%. Bible portions: 1996.
Writing system  Latin script.
Comments  Many women over 40 and some men have no education. People leave the area for jobs. VSO. Swidden agriculturalists: maize, beans, herbs, coffee. Christian, traditional religion.

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

Heise, Jennifer Lynn. 2003. Participant reference and tracking in San Francisco Ozolotepec Zapotec.  Available online

Hopkins, Mary L. 1995. "Narrative peak in Xanaguía Zapotec."  Available online

Marlett, Stephen A. 1990. "Zapotec pronoun classification."

Marlett, Stephen A. 1993. "Zapotec pronoun classification."

Olive, Julie Nan. 1995. "Speech verbs in Xanaguía Zapotec narrative."  Available online

Vernacular Publications

Tsiˀ bur. 2004.