Totonac in Mecapalapa: How long can it survive?

Abstract

The objective of this study is to know the level of language shift of the Totonac against Spanish in the community of Mecapalapa, Pantepec, Puebla. The study focuses in the ecology of pressures model specifically in the understanding of the reported knowledge of language, the formula of the transmission of languages developed by Terborg y García Landa (2011) and a comparison of the knowledge of Totonac and Spanish in the different quarters of the community. The methodology used here is quantitative; the research was conducted through a survey during the years 2013 and 2014. The sample obtain has 281 people who were selected according to the number of existing homes. The results show that in Mecapalapa the knowledge of Spanish is higher than the knowledge of Totonac in most of the people surveyed, it was found that the trend in this community is towards monolingualism in Spanish and also the maximum shared facility is in Spanish. In the neighborhoods it was found that although language shift is still dominant throughout the community it appears to be less pronounced in certain neighborhoods like: El Terrero, Las Flores and La Concha.

Keywords: language shift, indigenous languages, totonaco, ecology of pressures, Mexico.