Native to Mexico ISO 639-3 zab | Region central Oaxaca | |
Native speakers (29,000 cited 1990 census) Language family Oto-Manguean
Zapotecan
Zapotec
Central
Valley
Tlacolula Valley Zapotec Dialects Teotitlán del Valle
San Martín Tilcajete
Jalieza Zapotec | ||
Tlacolula Valley Zapotec or Valley Zapotec, formerly known by the varietal name Guelavia Zapotec (Zapoteco de San Juan Guelavía) is a Zapotec language of Oaxaca, Mexico.
Tlacolula Valley Zapotec is a cluster of Zapotec languages spoken in the western Tlacolula Valley, which show varying degrees of mutual intelligibility. The languages in this group include:
Teotitlán del Valle dialect is divergent, 59% intelligible to San Juan Guelavía proper.
In April 2014, linguist Brook Danielle Lillehaugen, along with students from Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges, visited Tlacolula de Matamoros to present an online Tlacolula Valley Zapotec talking dictionary [1] to local leaders. It was estimated that about 100 elderly speakers of this Zapotecan language remain.