Me'phaa
Tlapanec
Hamilton Heights +1nown to speakers themselves as Me'phaa, Tlapanec is an Indigenous Oto-Manguean language, with at least four distinct varieties, spoken in western central Mexico. The Malinaltepec variety spoken in the state of Guererro is estimated to have 37,500 speakers. Me'phaa activist and writer Zenaida Cantú is aware of at least 50 speakers of her language now living across New York, with some 30 or so from the municipio of Malinaltepec alone, some of whom have formed a band. There may be others who speak the very different (not always mutually intelligible) varieties from Acatepec and Tlacoapa. The largest concentrations of Me'phaa speakers live in upper Manhattan and the Bronx. Read more here.