The old Mexican language of Ayapaneco is in danger of dying out as its last two speakers aren’t talking to each other.

Despite living close to each other in the village of Ayapa, southern Mexico, Manuel Segovia, 75, and Isidro Velazquez, 69, don’t speak. It is not known whether they have a long-running feud or simply don’t like each other.

There is hope for the language however – a project is being run to produce a dictionary of Ayapaneco, which both speakers are assisting with. Interestingly, both Segovia and Velazquez call their language Nuumte Oote, which means True Voice. They tend to disagree on details of the language, which means that both versions will be included in the dictionary.

Whilst it’s a shame that Segovia and Velazquez don’t speak, hopefully they will be able to assist the project to complete the Ayapaenco dictionary and get others speaking the language before it’s lost forever.

(Source: The Guardian)