In this paper we are going to examine the conditions of language loss/maintenance of a small language/variant in a multi-layered multilingual situation. The language/variant is Tuahka-Mayangna spoken in the RAAN region of Nicaragua.

Tuahka is spoken in a very reduced number of communities (3 to 5) in the area of Rosita - Las Minas. It is a minority dialectal variant of Mayangna, with around 2000 speakers (with the majority variant of Mayangna having between 10 and 12,000 speakers). What makes the case of Tuahka interesting is that the population is experiencing a very strong and steady trend of language loss, shifting not to the national dominant language, Spanish, but to the regional dominant indigenous language, Miskitu, which is not spoken in the immediate geographic area. The dominant language in the immediate urban areas is Spanish, and there are other Mayangna speaking communities in that immediate area which speak the majority Mayangna variant, Panamahka (with no observed language shift pattern). However, there are no Miskitu communities in the local area, though there are a number of Miskitu families/individuals that have moved into the Tuahka communities over the  years. Tuahka community  members between the ages 0-20 do not speak the language (though there are exceptions); older adults can speak the language but do not use it in a regular way. The themes that the community is currently debating include, among others: (a) whether the vehicular language in the (bilingual) school system should be Tuahka (the heritage language, not spoken by most of the children) or Miskitu (the language that most children use); and (b) the language that the church should be using in conducting its pastoral business.
The factors or variables that we will consider in the evaluation of the situation are the following: