Last Two Speakers of Dying Language Refuse To Talk To Each Other
Imagine for a second that you grew up speaking a language that only your part of the world was fluent in. Now imagine for a second that everybody who spoke that language you were brought up on… died. All of them gone… except one… and he’s a real douchebag. What are you to do… well this is actually happening and these two speakers of a centuries old language in Mexico called Ayapaneco would rather let the language completely disappear than speak to eachother.
Manuel Segovia speaks fluent Ayapaneco. His wife and son know a few words of it, but can hardly be referred to as fluent. Manuel is 75 years old and kicks ass all day and all of the night in the village of Ayapa located in the deliciously named Mexican State of Tobasco. Living about 550 yards away from Manuel is the other fluent speaker of the ancient language, 69 year old Isidro Velazquez.
Nobody knows what made these two in favor of losing their heritage language rather than talking to the other… but people who have known the pair say they “never really enjoyed each other’s company.” Anthropologists studying this situation say that they are pretty much like oil and vinegar. Segovia is “a little prickly” and Velazquez is “more stoic” Â and is a real homebody. He doesn’t like to go out.
Both Velazquez and Segovia have different takes on certain aspects of the language… which is said to make them even more pissed off at each other. Segovia states that he once tried to teach the language to anybody who wanted to learn it. He even bought notebooks and pencils himself… but apparently he wasn’t a very riveting teacher and his full classes would soon turn to empty rooms.
This story would make for an awesome sitcom… or even better- A Real World-esque forced living situation between these two. They could talk mad smack about one another to the confession cameras. Maybe producers could get them hammered and unleash them on an unsuspecting Vegas. They could call  each other profane names in the dying language… and who knows… maybe they could even learn to be friends that way. In closing, the term “kolo-golo-nay” translates as “to gobble like a turkey” in Ayapaneco… so consider yourself learned!
[Source: Guardian.co.uk]
[Image via: Guardian/Jaime Avalos/EPA]
