Mexico is a huge state in the territoryNorth America, whose total area is 1.95 million km. From the northern and eastern parts of Mexico borders on the United States. From the eastern part of the country is washed by the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Caribbean Sea. Mexico also includes numerous Pacific islands. The capital of this state is Mexico City - one of the oldest cities. But does this country have its own language?
In fact, the people of Mexico in everyday lifeCommunion is the Spanish language - more precisely, its Mexican dialect. This happened historically, as a result of the conquest of local lands by European conquistadors. Therefore, as such, the Mexican language does not exist. However, in addition to Spanish, about 68 local languages are also used. But the vast majority of the population - about 90% - still communicates in Spanish.
Spanish in Mexico remains the mostwidespread - it is spoken almost everywhere. Despite the fact that Spanish is widely distributed, it is not an official language. This is a very common misconception. The fact is that the Mexican Constitution states: Mexico is a multinational country. Therefore, it always stands for bilingualism, or Spanish plus a local adverb.
Some tourists heading to Mexico,hurry to find a Russian-Mexican phrase book. Others, knowing that now the vast majority of Mexicans communicate in Spanish, grab at the head: before the trip you need to learn a new language as quickly as possible. However, there are also such travelers who are sure that you can survive in any country, knowing English. With regard to Mexico, this is a great misconception. English here not only does not help, but can seriously interfere. The fact is that the Mexicans do not like the Americans next to them. Therefore, if a tourist begins to communicate with a local in English, most likely, he will take an indifferent look. Or do not communicate in an unfriendly manner.
Indigenous dialects say no more than 6% of theof the total population of the country. And this is about 6 million people. It is interesting that the number of those who stubbornly consider themselves descended from the great Indians exceeds this number by half. The most common local Mexican language is called Nahuatl, which includes various dialects. Nahuatl use about 1.3 million people.
One of the main languages of the Aztec groupis a classic Nahuatl. Since the XVI century, he was systematically superseded by invading Europeans. Gradually the language of the Aztecs began to decay into dialects. At the moment, the classic Nahuatl is counted among the dead languages. However, it retained a large number of literary monuments, recorded with the help of the Latin alphabet. Many of the Nahuatl languages are called Mexican. Translation into different languages and even Nahuatl courses has now ceased to be exotic.
The next most prevalent place is occupied bythe language of the ancient Maya is Maaya Taan, or Yucatec language. Its bearers are about 759 thousand people. It is distributed mainly on the Yucatán Peninsula. The oldest recorded language of the Maya is the language of the classical era of this civilization. It is believed that the common ancestor of the Yukatek dialects is the Pra-Maysk language.
About 450 thousand people communicate in the language of kekchi.This language is mainly distributed in the territory of Guatemala. Here, about 90% of the total number of people communicate with him. However, also kekchi can be heard on the territory of El Salvador and Belize. For a very long time, the ethnic family of kekchi was isolated from other regions. Therefore, the different dialects of this language differ from each other very insignificantly. The main dialect is the western dialect. Kecchi is distinguished by the fact that among its representatives the largest number of monolingual carriers.
Another 423 thousand people.use the languages of the Mishtek group in everyday life. The territory of the distribution of Mishtek Mexican is an area called La Mishtek. The word "mishtek" means "resident, philistine". Usually, the carriers of this group of languages use the poetic phrase "Word of rain" to designate the native dialect. In total, the Mishtek language has 52 local dialects.
410 thousand.people in Mexico are carriers of the Sapotec languages. The Sapotek civilization was born about 700 BC. e. In the XVI century, it was finally subdued by European conquerors. The Zapotec Empire was located on the territory of the modern Mexican state of Oaxaca. The largest settlement of Zapotecs was a city called Monte Alban, which was the first capital of the empire. The constant enemies of the state were the neighboring Mishteks.
