Indigenous languages ​​could disappear if policies are not changed: experts

Texcoco, Mex. Researchers have considered that if the country’s language policies are not substantially modified, the national indigenous languages ​​will irremediably disappear in a couple of generations, and with them the great wealth of conceptual and symbolic forms, all their worldviews and their cultural differences.

During the inauguration of the 2024 National Indigenous Languages ​​Fair held at the Autonomous University of Chapingo (UACh), specialists called for guaranteeing the linguistic rights of indigenous peoples, ending differential treatment of speakers of indigenous languages, and uniting efforts of the three levels of government to achieve a multilingual country.

During the conference “Good practices for the exercise of linguistic rights: towards the construction of a multilingual state,” Fidencio Briceño Chel | Maayat´aan (Maya) from the State Center for Training, Research and Humanistic Diffusion of Yucatan; said that more than 60 percent of the national indigenous languages ​​are at some level of risk of disappearing.

“There are 68 national indigenous languages ​​and there are no adequate language policies to address them. With the languages, the inventory of traditional knowledge directly linked to the habitat in which it is spoken and to the repertoire of biological and geographical uses that a community has discovered, explored and sustained over the centuries in its relationship with the environment would be lost.”

“Languages, through their speakers, are, among other things, living documents that contain important keys to managing biodiversity,” he said.

He recalled that 20 years have passed since the General Law on Linguistic Rights of Indigenous Peoples was enacted and no progress has been made in promoting the use of indigenous languages ​​and the languages ​​of indigenous peoples.

He added that unfortunately the law is not known and is not applied, and thus one of the fundamental rights as a human right is violated.

“Which municipality or mayor is aware of the latest reform carried out on September 12, 2023? It refers to implementing the necessary measures so that in municipalities where at least 20 percent of the population speaks an indigenous language, the information signs of official nomenclature as well as their toponyms are registered in Spanish and in the indigenous languages ​​used.”

“The vast majority of the states of the republic have not yet harmonized article two of the national law with their respective constitutions.”

He said that according to INEGI data from the 2020 population and housing census, national indigenous languages ​​continue to be at a disadvantage compared to the use of Spanish in public, community and family spaces.

She also highlighted that the National Council for the Prevention of Discrimination has documented, in its survey on discrimination conducted in 2017, those institutional gaps that negatively impact daily life, which in parallel encourage the reasons why speakers of indigenous languages ​​stop transmitting their language.

He said that in 2017, in a sample population of 39,101 homes that reached 102,245 people, it was documented that 23.3 percent of the indigenous population reported having been discriminated against in at least one social sphere.

“Of these areas, 29.2 percent reported at least one incident of denial of rights in the last five years. These incidents reflect that the Mexican state has much to do to comply with the rights established in Mexican legislation, which is why it must move from a state whose goods and services circulate in a monolingual manner in Spanish to a multilingual dynamic.”

The specialists argued that it is necessary to join forces to enforce linguistic rights in any area of ​​public life, which is why it is important to have a monitoring instrument for the Mexican state to be able to report on the progress and challenges on a recurring basis that take into account linguistic rights, “and that is why I find the results of the certificate for the registration of actions regarding linguistic rights of indigenous peoples in public administration carried out by the National Institute of Indigenous Languages ​​in 2023 important and interesting.”

During the opening of the fair, the rector of the UACh, Ángel Garduño García, pointed out that the university, 170 years after its creation, does not disdain the ancient wisdom of our luminous past, but rather, from it, finds its best impetus in the search for alternatives for the development of the Mexican countryside, today in urgent need of a great transformation.

He said that here, the children of farmers, the children of workers and the children of other social classes, with a desire for academic improvement, shape the face of multicultural and multilingual inclusion of the country that we are building from our classrooms and in the agricultural experimentation fields.

“The policy of inclusion of our linguistic and cultural diversity is our way of putting into practice what the General Law on Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico states.”

He pointed out that of the 68 linguistic groups that are still alive in the country, 47.70 percent of the total languages ​​spoken in Mexico are represented in Chapingo; also, of the 10,586 students that make up the enrollment, 1,835 enrolled in the high school, undergraduate and graduate levels speak an indigenous language.