In The NoCo

How two CU Boulder researchers are working to keep an endangered language alive

By In The NoCo,

Published March 27, 2025 at 5:40 AM MDT

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Ambrocio Gutierrez provides input as CU students and Zapotec collaborators work on translations. — Two CU Boulder language scholars are working to keep a form of the Zapotec language — which is spoken primarily in Teotitlán del Valle — alive. Professor Ambrocio Gutierrez (pictured here providing input as CU students and Zapotec collaborators work on translations) grew up speaking this form of Zapotec.

Around the globe, thousands of languages are considered endangered – that's according to the language reference website Ethnologue. In many cases the people who speak them are passing away, and younger generations aren’t learning them.

But a pair of language scholars from the University of Colorado are working to stop these endangered languages from slipping away.

Zapotec is a family of languages that originated in Southern Mexico and Central America. Today, it’s spoken mostly in Oaxaca, Mexico. And even though about 500,000 people speak a form of Zapotec, it’s in danger of being lost.

Professor Ambrocio Gutierrez grew up speaking Zapotec and now leads this effort at CU Boulder along with his colleague Professor Rai Ferrelly. Their work focuses on a particular version of the language, spoken in the town Teotitlán del Valle.

They spoke with Erin O’Toole about their work – which includes writing a kind of dictionary for the language, as well as teaching others to speak Zapotec.

A nearly 300 year old church with two bell towers sits against a clear blue sky. — The family of Zapotec languages dates back thousands of years, originating in Mesoamerica.

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In The NoCo

KUNC's In The NoCo is a daily slice of stories, news, people and issues. It's a window to the communities along the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The show brings context and insight to the stories of the day, often elevating unheard voices in the process. And because life in Northern Colorado is a balance of work and play, we celebrate the lighter side of things here, too.

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Ariel Lavery

Ariel Lavery grew up in Louisville, Colorado and has returned to the Front Range after spending over 25 years moving around the country. She co-created the podcast Middle of Everywhere for WKMS, Murray State University’s NPR member station, and won Public Media Journalism awards in every season she produced for Middle of Everywhere. Her most recent series project is "The Burn Scar", published with The Modern West podcast. In it, she chronicles two years of her family’s financial and emotional struggle following the loss of her childhood home in the Marshall Fire.

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Erin O'Toole

As the host of KUNC’s new program and podcast In the NoCo, I work closely with our producers and reporters to bring context and diverse perspectives to the important issues of the day. Northern Colorado is such a diverse and growing region, brimming with history, culture, music, education, civic engagement, and amazing outdoor recreation. I love finding the stories and voices that reflect what makes NoCo such an extraordinary place to live.

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Brad Turner

Brad Turner is an executive producer in KUNC's newsroom. He manages the podcast team that makes In The NoCo, which also airs weekdays in Morning Edition and All Things Considered. His work as a podcaster and journalist has appeared on NPR's Weekend Edition, NPR Music, the PBS Newshour, Colorado Public Radio, MTV Online, the Denver Post, Boulder's Daily Camera, and the Longmont Times-Call.

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