Mexico officially has 68 indigenous languages, 364 linguistic variants and 11 families: INALI
With this announcement, it is expected that soon the General Indigenous Law will be fully sanctioned, to make all the instances promoted to improve the housing, health and education conditions in which thousands of people live.
As an achievement and a warning of the danger they face if they persist in their discrimination, the National Institute of Indigenous Languages published the official catalog of national indigenous languages in the Official Gazette of the Federation, indicating that there are currently 364 linguistic variants, included in 11 families.
Fernando Nava López, director of INALI, warned that of these variants, 30 are in danger of disappearing due to the lack of translators, discrimination or the virtual lack of a sufficient number of speakers, as exemplified by the situation of Ayapaneca, which has only two speakers, as well as Yuto-Nahua, a variant of Nahuatl.
The result offers a new possibility for Mexico to invest in projects to preserve the cultural identity of its indigenous groups, since the United Nations, in addition to having declared 2008 as the International Year of Languages, considers Mexico, Brazil and The United States, as the nations that in the American continent integrate the largest number of native languages.
INALI expects to have a budget to finance various projects to support indigenous groups, including the training of professional translators to help the public learn more about the 7 million people who speak an indigenous language in Mexico.
