Do you speak the Indigenous language of your country?

r/

I had a Spanish teacher from Ecuador, and she said that though a lot people in her environment spoke Quechua, she couldn’t speak it at all. I wanna know, is that a common situation in Latin American countries? Do a lot people in your environment do or don’t speak the indigenous language(s)?

Comments

  1. JoeDyenz Avatar

    In Mexico only Indigenous minorities speak those languages and mostly at home, and most of them speak Spanish in public.

  2. lojaslave Avatar

    Most people don’t speak them, except for those raised bilingual in some Andean and Amazonian towns. There’s just no reason to learn them.

    Things might be different in Paraguay and I suppose Bolivia, but elsewhere I doubt it.

  3. znrsc Avatar

    Aside from one actual indigenous person I met, not a single one in my whole life spoke anything of any native language ever. some of the natives themselves are less proficient in their own language than in portuguese, especially the younger ones

  4. GamerBoixX Avatar

    That’s a common situation in LatAm, I think the only country in which the majority actually speaks a native language is Paraguay with Guarani, aside from them, like half of Bolivia does speak Aymara or Quechua, in southern Perú Quechua is still fairly common and in southern Mexico some native languages, mainly mayan family languages are still seen with some regularity, aside from that, native languages are extremely rare

    I’m from the state of Yucatán in the Yucatán peninsula and most people in the smaller inland towns do speak yucatec mayan, I do know how to speak it but not perfectly nor fluently

  5. SavannaWhisper Avatar

    Unfortunately, no. I don’t know anyone who speaks a native language either.

  6. Guuichy_Chiclin Avatar

    Nah, it’s relatively extinct, although there is a movement to being it back, they are mostly making it up as they go. 

    I do speak a little bit of the old family language (Arabic) before my family move to the colonies