Cuicatec love poem

Dbaku love poem (Cúu Cáa, Tepeuxila Cuicatec, Cuicateco del centro, Center Cuicatec, Cuicateco, Dvacu, Ndudu, Nduuduyuo, Davvacu yeñ'e yu), which is one of the three variants of the cuicatec language, itself one of the 16 languages of the state of Oaxaca in Mexico.

It is spoken by the Cuicateca community of San Juan Tepeuxila (300 inhabitants and 80 speakers), in the Cuicatlán district, which is in the northern part of the state of Oaxaca.

The other two variants of Cuicatec, this tonal language, from the Oto-Mango language family, of the Mixtec group, from Oaxaca, are Nduaku and Duaku.

For all of these three dialects, the number of speakers of Cuicatec is estimated to 14,000, and for the word itself, it comes from Nahuatl and means "those who inhabit".

The differences between these dialects (center, north and east) are not so great, and inter-understandability is possible.

Today, Spanish has taken more and more importance and space in the daily life of the Cuicatecs.

If the over 60s are bilingual and speak Cuicatec better than Spanish, people between 30 and 60 generally only understand it, and no longer speak it. As for the youngest, we can say that they are essentially monolingual, they only speak Spanish since the adults no longer use the language with them.

That is to say, how much Cuicateco is in great danger of extinction.

The Cuicatecs (Nduudu yu) are related to the Mixtecs. They live in the Cañada region, in the district of Cuicatlán, north of Oaxaca (Mexico). The two main cities of their territory are Tepeuxila and Teutila.

According to oral tradition they would have arrived, in successive waves, in the region from central Mexico. By deciding to settle in Oxaca region, they founded Tepeuxila (Cuca (Cúu Cáa) in their language). Their close neighbors are the Mazatecs, Chinantecs and the Mixtecs.

Growing tomatoes, corn, and beans is a daily routine for most of this community.