Linguistic Cartography of the Complejo Regional Nororiental of the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma De Puebla (CRN-BUAP): A Sociolinguistic Study of Indigenous and Additional Languages
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54536/jnll.v4i2.8714Keywords:
Bilingualism, Ethnolinguistic Vitality, Higher Education, Indigenous Languages, MexicoAbstract
Despite growing scholarship on intercultural higher education in Mexico, little is known about the sociolinguistic profile of regional university campuses located in indigenous-majority municipalities. This study addresses that gap by mapping self-reported knowledge of indigenous and additional languages among students of the Complejo Regional Nororiental (CRN-BUAP) of the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, extending prior university-based sociolinguistic work previously limited to BUAP’s central campus. Using a self-administered questionnaire (April–May 2026), we surveyed an effective sample of 720 students unevenly distributed across three campuses: Teziutlán (n = 602), Libres (n = 96), and Zacapoaxtla (n = 22). Descriptively, Zacapoaxtla shows the highest proportion of Nahuatl and Totonac speakers, and English dominates as an additional language at all three campuses without an equivalent formal offer for indigenous languages. These patterns are reported descriptively rather than as causal claims about institutional language hierarchies, given the self-reported nature of the data, the cross-sectional design, and the small Zacapoaxtla subsample. The study offers CRN-BUAP a verifiable empirical baseline for intercultural planning and points to the need for differentiated, campus-specific language-support policies.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Abelardo Romero Fernández, Fabio Morandín-Ahuerma, Laura Villanueva Méndez, Annel Sipiani Palestina Aguilar
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