Zapotec LANGUAGE

Writing

The Zapotec script is one of the earliest writing systems in Mesoamerica.

The first examples of Zapotec writing are brief inscriptions found on stone monuments dated between 400 and 200 BC, most of which are found in Monte Alban, a large archeological site in the state of Oaxaca. The Zapotec writing system used a separate glyph to represent each syllable of the language. It is considered to be the basis of other Mesoamerican scripts developed by the Mayas, Mixtecs, and Aztecs. Compared to other these other Mesoamerican scripts, Zapotec is less well understood partly because there are no records of the language on which the script is based, partly because there are few records and the records are very brief. Use of the Zapotecan script eventually declined, and it was replaced by another form of writing in the 10th century AD.

Today, Zapotecan languages are written in the Latin alphabet adapted to represent some of the sounds of the language. It must be kept in mind, that the orthographies were designed by Spanish friars who imposed Spanish orthographic tradition on the Zapotec languages that have many sounds which do not exist in European languages. The Mexican branch of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) has attempted to design an orthography for the Zapotec languages, following general linguistic and orthographic principles. However, linguists encountered difficulties in trying to represent the wide range of sounds found in these languages with one single orthography. Thus, the issue remains unresolved.

Click here to find out more.

The first of its kind: Di'csyonaary X:tee'n Dii'zh Sah Sann Luu'c: San Lucas Quiavini Zapotec Dictionary: Diccionario Zapoteco de San Lucas Quiavini.
Zapotec Dictionary of San Lucas Quiavini, by Pamela Monroe and Felipe Lopez

In 1999, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) published the first dictionary in Zapotec. It includes 9,000 words translated into English and Spanish. It was designed for the 50,000 Oaxaca Indians living in California. The dictionary bears the name of the hometown of the dictionary's main author, Felipe Lopez, a Oaxaca Indian who arrived in California as an undocumented immigrant 25 years ago. He worked in agriculture and then moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a dishwasher until he became a legal resident.

Lopez was inspired to compile the two-volume dictionary because his language had never been written and because it was becoming endangered. The dictionary was prepared with the help of Pamela Munroe, a UCLA linguist, and Guillermo Hernandez, head of the Chicano Studies Center at UCLA.