Ixcatec, also known as Xwja, is a language spoken by the people of the Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 village of Santa María Ixcatlan

Santa María Ixcatlan

Santa María Ixcatlan is a town and municipality in Oaxaca in south-western Mexico.It is part of the Teotitlán District in the north of the Cañada Region.The municipality has an area of 201.58 km2 at an elevation of 1,840 meters above sea level....

, in the northern part of the state of Oaxaca

Oaxaca

Oaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions...

. The Ixcatec language belongs to the Popolocan

Popolocan languages

The Popolocan languages are a subfamily of the Oto-Manguean language family of Mexico, spoken mainly in the state of Puebla.The Popolocan languages should not be confused with the languages called Popoluca spoken in the state of Veracruz, which belong to the unrelated Mixe–Zoquean language family...

 branch of the Oto-manguean

Oto-Manguean languages

Oto-Manguean languages are a large family comprising several families of Native American languages. All of the Oto-Manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but the Manguean branch of the family, which is now extinct, was spoken as far south as Nicaragua and Costa Rica.The...

 language family.

The number of speakers was given to be 119 in the early 1980s, but according to the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, there were only 8 speakers of the language in 2008.