How two CU Boulder researchers are working to keep an endangered language alive

Around the globe, thousands of languages are considered endangered – that's according to the language reference website Ethnologue. In many cases the people who speak them are passing away, and younger generations aren’t learning them. 

But a pair of language scholars from the University of Colorado are working to stop these endangered languages from slipping away. 

Zapotec is a family of languages that originated in Southern Mexico and Central America. Today, it’s spoken mostly in Oaxaca, Mexico. And even though about 500,000 people speak a form of Zapotec, it’s in danger of being lost. 

Professor Ambrocio Gutierrez grew up speaking Zapotec and now leads this effort at CU Boulder along with his colleague Professor Rai Ferrelly. Their work focuses on a particular version of the language, spoken in the town Teotitlán del Valle.  

They spoke with Erin O’Toole about their work – which includes writing a kind of dictionary for the language, as well as teaching others to speak Zapotec.

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Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole
Producer: Ariel Lavery
Executive Producer: Brad Turner
Theme music by Robbie Reverb
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.