Páez language

Páez
Nasa Yuwe
Native to	Colombia
Region	Andes
Ethnicity	120,000 Páez (2007)
Native speakers	40,000 (2007)
Language family	Paezan ? Páez
Dialects	Pitayo Paniquita
Language codes
ISO 639-3	pbb
Glottolog	paez1247

Páez (also Paez, Páes, Paes, autonym: Nasa Yuwe 'Nasa language', which is becoming increasingly used) is an isolated language of Colombia spoken by Páez people. The Ethnologue estimates about 71,400 to 83,300 speakers, among which are counted about 40,000 monolinguals of an ethnic population of 140,000.

Localization

The Nasa Yuwe language is spoken by the second largest Colombian native community, the Páez people. This group of people is situated in the north of Cauca Department in the southwest region of Colombia. However, they had to move to other departments of Colombia like Huila, Tolima and Valle del Cauca.

Historical background

Although many Colombian indigenous languages have disappeared since colonial times, there are more than 60 languages in Colombia, which are classified in 10 linguistic families: Chibcha, Arawak, Caribe, Quichua, Tukano, Guahibo, Makú-Puinave, Witoto-Bora, Sáliba, and Chocó. Currently, the Chibcha family is compound by the languages from Santa Marta: Arhuaco, kogui, Wiwa, Tunebo, Motilone, Chimila and Cuna, but in the past people believed that the Nasa Yuwe language was part of the Chibcha family. Agriculture is the basis of their economy, and for this reason they have been fighting to expand their fields. With the territorial expansion they could spread out their own language. For instance, recently the Nasa Yuwe speakers could develop their culture in the east and west of their own township. In addition, the Páez language has been endangered for many centuries. The first threat against the language was in the 17th century with the imposition of Spanish in the official education in Colombia. Then, in the 20th century people believed that the Nasa Yuwe had their roots in the Chibcha language, but nowadays the language is considered an isolated one. Also, in the Páez townships, there are many groups of Guambianos that allow the creation of some linguistic variations and bilingualism.

Endangered Language

In the education environment, the Nasa Yuwe were oppressed by the dominant culture to achieve the goal to have “Colombian citizens”. One of the purposes of the school was to introduce civilization into the indigenous culture, therefore the children who spoke in their native language were punished. For example, some years ago, the teachers forced the students to kneel on grains of corn for hours and hours. Briefly, people have been forced to not use their native language in order to become civilized people.

Revitalizing the language

With the General Law of Education, Ethnoeducation is defined as the opportunity of education for ethnic groups, but this education needs to be related to the culture, traditions, language and native elements of the ethnic groups. To achieve the goal of giving importance to the indigenous languages, it is important to ensure that future indigenous generations preserve and relearn languages that do not have social privilege in the Colombian society. Therefore, it was necessary to implement booklets and original content material in the different languages. Although the government proposed to introduce the education of native languages in some communities, there is a lack of giving importance to the preservation of languages and identities. Besides, it is important to revitalize the nasa yuwe language because it is part of the identity of a big group of people that have been not considered part of the Colombian society. To achieve the goal, it is necessary to follow some steps: First of all. It is important the capacitation of the native teachers in all the academic aspects and the sociocultural aspects of the ethnic group. Second of all, the creation of a campaign that promotes the importance of the language in a minority community to maintain identity. The goal of the campaign is to reinforce the use of the language in the education environment and the family environment because the first and the most influential contacts of children are these two entities. The last step is to promote the project to being used with other endangered languages of our country and revitalize them. Plus, it is also necessary to create a conscience in the rest of the society to avoid the marginalization of the people who speak these native languages.

Nasa yuwe tale

External links

• Proel: Lengua Paes
• Fabre: Nasa

Bibliography

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