Language Revitalization Processes and Prospects: Quichua in the Ecuadorian Andes (Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 24) - Softcover

King, Kendall A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1853594946 ISBN 13: 9781853594946

Verlag: MULTILINGUAL MATTERS, 2000

Inhaltsangabe

This work explores educational and community efforts to revitalize the Quichua language in two indigenous Andean communities of southern Ecuador. Analyzing the linguistic, social, and cultural processes of positive language shift, this book contributes to our understanding of formal and informal educational efforts to revitalize threatened languages.

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Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Kendall A. King holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1991), an M.A. in TESOL from the University of Pennsylvania (1993), and a Ph.D. in Educational Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania (1997). She is presently an Assistant Professor at New York University.

Kendall A. King holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara (1991), an M.A. in TESOL from the University of Pennsylvania (1993), and a Ph.D. in Educational Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania (1997). She is presently an Assistant Professor at New York University.

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Language Revitalization Processes and Prospects

Quichua in the Ecuadorian Andes

By Kendall A. King

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2001 Kendall A. King
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-85359-494-6

Contents

Foreword by Nancy Hornberger, vii, 
Acknowledgements, ix, 
Preface, xi, 
1 Language Revitalization, 1, 
2 Setting the Scene, 33, 
3 Language Use and Ethnic Identity in Lagunas, 70, 
4 Language Use and Ethnic Identity in Tambopamba, 108, 
5 Quichua Instruction and the Community Schools, 139, 
6 Prospects and Processes Revisited, 185, 
Conclusion, 229, 
Appendices, 232, 
Appendix 1: Monthly schedule of research activities, 232, 
Appendix 2: Log of audio-taped interviews, 233, 
Appendix 3: Interview guides, 235, 
References, 240, 
Indices, 254, 

CHAPTER 1

Language Revitalization

The town meeting hall in the southern Ecuadorian highlands was filled beyond capacity. Women sat with their children on rows of small wooden benches; most of the men and the older boys stood to the sides and at the back, clustered near the entrance. After several delays, numerous speeches, and lengthy rounds of applause for the organizers of the event, the selection of the Sara Ñuesta (/Q/ 'Corn Queen') of Saraguro began. Each of the six teenage contestants, carefully clothed in her best and most traditional attire, was escorted to the stage by a teenage boy, also in traditional costume. While much of their clothing was just a finer, newer version of their everyday attire, all of the teenagers had exchanged their usual soft, felt hats for large, heavy ones made of pressed wool, typically worn only by the eldest Saraguros. And instead of their everyday sandals and athletic shoes, all were barefoot.

Upon reaching the stage, contestants were asked the same five basic questions about themselves and their communities in Quichua, a language which was not their mother tongue. The questions had been given to the Spanish-dominant contestants in advance so that they would have several days to prepare and practice their answers. Yet their responses clearly revealed their unfamiliarity with what has become, for most Saraguros, a second or foreign language. Some contestants stumbled through their answers, pausing after each Quichua word; others, unable to respond at all to the simplest questions about their name and age, awkwardly remained silent.

Between presentations of the contestants, the event's principal organizers (in fluent Spanish and halting Quichua) explained the benefits of knowing Quichua. Reasons ranged from the cultural importance of Quichua for Saraguros to the 'proven superiority' of Quichua as a computer programming language. While Quichua was clearly not the primary language of the contestants, the pronunciation and word choice of the event organizers indicated that they too spoke Quichua as a second language. Furthermore, the commotion and conversation during the Quichua monologues suggested that Quichua was also not a primary, nor even a fully comprehensible language for most of the audience.

The selection of the 1994 Saraguro 'Corn Queen' depended, to a large extent, on speaking a language no longer regularly used by most Saraguros. The annual contest is not a harvest ritual inherited by Saraguros from their Andean ancestors, but rather one of many events organized in recent years by Saraguros to display and promote what is perceived to be traditional Saraguro culture. These events, which might be described as exhibitions of 'metaculture' (Urban, 1993), focus on emblematic components of Saraguro ethnic identity. It is not surprising that language, as one of the more tangible aspects of identity, is frequently a central focus of public attention. This focus on language is particularly interesting given the position of the Saraguros.

As the Saraguros have shifted from speaking primarily Quichua to speaking mostly Spanish, they have nonetheless retained their Saraguro ethnic identity, that is, they define themselves as indigenous and carefully mark themselves as such with locally and nationally recognized indigenous Saraguro apparel and hair styles. While clearly identifiable as Saraguros, this group is also part of the Quichua nation. The Quichua, with over two million members, are by far the most numerous of the ten indigenous nationalities in Ecuador.

Yet the Saraguros are also one of a growing number of indigenous groups who face the possibility of losing their ancestral language as an oral channel of communication. In recent years, as it has become clear that most Saraguro communities are quickly approaching Spanish monolingualism, the decline in both Quichua competence and usage has increasingly become a source of concern and even embarrassment for many Saraguros. Concomitantly, as will be discussed in Chapter 2, in recent decades Saraguros have gained greater authority over their own schools and communities. Largely as a result of these two developments, many Saraguros, both individually and collectively, are attempting to use Quichua in new ways and to revitalize the language within their communities.

These efforts and the communities in which they are embedded are the starting points for this study. More precisely, this book seeks to contribute to our understanding of language revitalization through analysis of language use and ethnic identity in two Saraguro communities. Drawing on long-term fieldwork in the region and detailed descriptions of school and community patterns of language use, language attitudes, and conceptions of ethnic identity, the book analyzes the socioeconomic, linguistic, and cultural processes that correspond with 'positive,' societal-level language shift.

Basic Terms and Definitions

Language revitalization is best conceptualized as one of several types of societal-level language shift. Perhaps the most well-known instance of language revitalization to date is the case of Hebrew, which in the period of 1880–1921 was transformed from a literary, scholarly, and liturgical language to a regularly spoken vernacular (Spolsky, 1995). Before delving into the discussion of language revitalization in detail, it is helpful to consider briefly three closely related terms: (1) language maintenance, (2) language loss or obsolescence, and (3) language death. Only in the context of these sister terms can the concept of language revitalization be fully understood.

Language maintenance, quite simply, is the continued use of a language by a particular group. For more powerful, majority-language groups, this continuation of use is often a non-issue, and something of which most speakers are not conscious. Spanish speakers in Mexico or Spain, for example, might worry about speaking 'good' Spanish; they are not, however, concerned with the possible death or disappearance of the Spanish language. For less powerful, minority-language speakers in contrast, language maintenance tends to entail conscious effort and is often a collective goal in the face of adverse circumstances.

Most definitions of language maintenance implicitly adopt the perspective of speakers of minority languages. Nahir (1984: 315), for example, defines language maintenance as

the preservation of the use of a group's native language, as a first or even as a second language, where political, social, economic, educational, or other pressures threaten or cause (or are perceived to threaten or cause) a decline in the status of the language as a means of communication, a cultural medium, or a...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: MULTILINGUAL MATTERS
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2000
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1853594946
• ISBN 13: 9781853594946
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 272
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar