Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🧑‍🌾 An indigenous person 🗣️ A native language
Zapotecan

Zapotecan

9.9
A group of related languages spoken by the native people of Oaxaca, Mexico
  • noun
  • /zæpəˈtɛkən/
: zapoteco
  • She is fluent in both Spanish and Zapotecan, allowing her to translate between the two.

Examples

  • The Zapotecan languages are known for their complex tone systems.

  • The Zapotecan language is still spoken today.

  • Many linguists study Zapotecan to understand the history of Mesoamerican languages.

  • She speaks Zapotecan fluently.

  • Many linguists study Zapotecan to understand the history of Mesoamerican languages.

  • The Zapotecan languages are known for their complex tone systems.

  • The Zapotecan language is still spoken today.

Synonyms

Zapotec
vsZapotecan
1 9.9

The language spoken by a native people of southern Mexico

is broader and also used for the whole family of related languages
Zapotec language
vsZapotecan
1 9.9

A native language spoken by the Zapotec people in southern Mexico

also names one individual language as well as the whole group
Zapotecan language
vsZapotecan
9.9

A native language that the Zapotec people speak in southern Mexico

can also mean a single language or a member of that group

Compounds

Zapotecan language
9.9

A native language that the Zapotec people speak in southern Mexico

Surface Forms

Zapotecan singular
Zapotecans plural

Morphology

Zapotecan = Zapotec (transparent) = Zapotec + an

The language name is formed by the ethnonym plus '-an', a common and transparent pattern for naming languages or language families.

Etymology

Zapotecan as the name of a language comes from Zapotec, from the Nahuatl tzapotēca meaning 'people of the sapote', a soft fruit. That's why Zapotecan refers to the group of languages spoken by those people in Oaxaca, Mexico.