Shunguhuan Yuyai: The Battle for Kichwa Language and Culture Revitalization in Ecuador as Thinking-Feeling and Performance (original) (raw)
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Kichwa Language and Culture Revitalization in Ecuador as Thinking-Feeling and Performance
2017
It has been predicted that, by the end of the XXI century, approximately half of 7000 World languages will be extinct (Austin and Sallabank 2014, 2). Some more pessimistic sources provide an extinction rate by the end of the century up to 90%. However, there are efforts being done to revitalize endangered indigenous languages globally and, although many programs are struggling in their efforts, there are successful examples of revitalization through these programs. The best studied examples include languages like Maori, Hawaiian, and Basque. The purpose of this project is to understand Kichwa language revitalization in comparative perspective with other language programs. Within this goal, this thesis addresses four main issues: The first will be to look at the growth and challenges faced by Kichwa revitalization movement. Then, the reasons and arguments that Kichwa revitalization activists provide for the undertaking of such task will be presented. This will be done with the purpose of drawing initial lessons from past and present failing projects attempting Kichwa revival. Lastly, the signs of hope for future and current revitalization projects from each interlocutor in my project will be presented and analyzed. With these goals in mind, I will present how Kichwa revitalization movements are operating in Ecuador and how these efforts influence the younger generation of speakers.
Being & Speaking Kichwa in Otavalo, Ecuador: Language Ideologies & Language Vitality
This research argues that political and institutional efforts promoting a standardize Kichwa code or vernacular to unify numerous Kichwa linguistic groups are experienced as ‘limited’ to rural Kichwa indigenous populations, despite being seen as successful by particular populations. Secondary to Spanish, Kichwa, an official Ecuadorian language for “intercultural relations”, has been recently standardized and is now being taught in schools across the Ecuadorian Highlands. While the usage of Kichwa for in the Highlands grows, rural and agrarian people experience these efforts differently. I lived with and researched Runakuna or the indigenous Kichwa people in villages such as Agato, Quinchuqui, Peguche, Arias Uko, Pakta Llakta as well as the cities of Otavalo and Quito. Generally, urban Runakuna take pride in learning standardize Kichwa, while the rural Runakuna feel a sense a loss towards their heritage language. National development strategies, such as “Live Well” or “Buen Vivir” promulgate Ecuador’s western bilingual education models. The outcomes of these bilingual language policies affecting Kichwa are evaluated through the lens of prescriptive and denotative language ideologies and the corresponding “goals” they inform—yet, these outcomes are not representative of local Runakuna villages. Rural Kichwa Otavaleños perceive traditional bilingual education as incongruent with their local ways of life. The official bilingual education system in Otavalo falls short from being “Pluricultural” because it lacks the sensibilities and understandings that emanate from a local Kichwa cosmology. My research concludes that rural Runakuna are willing to linguistically adopt standardized Kichwa as long as local community values are not destabilized. These models take the form of “a balanced bilingualism”.
The Changing Kichwa Language Map in Ecuador
The changing Kichwa Language Map in Ecuador, in Handbook of The Changing World Language Map, Stanley Brunn and Roland Kehrein, eds., Voume 3, pp. 1731- 1742. Springer, Cham., 2020
Indigenous populations in Latin America, the Andes, and Ecuador in particular have been subjected to colonization, extermination, relocation, and forced and “voluntary” acculturation for five centuries. The resulting geographic pat- terns of cultural traits, including languages, are still poorly understood, in part due to lack of good contemporary and historical data and in part due to at least occasional prioritization of class and ethnic identity over cultural practices such as language by scholars and census takers. Using Ecuador as a case example, this chapter discusses some of the history of attempts to map the Kichwa language and presents four contrasting maps based on 1950 and 2010 census data.
Languages are the centre piece of the cultural diversity of the world yet they are also a vulnerable part of the world’s cultural heritage. Of the 6,000 languages spoken in the world, only eight are of wider communication while over 417 languages are endangered (UNESCO). Research shows that half of the languages spoken today are likely to be extinct by the end of this century. In Africa, indigenous languages are highly endangered because the younger generations are no longer learning them. The situation in Latin America where an increasing language loss, shift, endangerment and possible extinction is greatly worrying is not different either. The loss of language is not merely a loss of the language itself but also a loss of entire culture and knowledge of a people. Each language reflects a unique vision of the world along with a complex culture, envisioning the way in which a community sees the world and how they shape their philosophical minds around their cultural heritage. It is therefore important to be aware of the efforts being done to give life to endangered languages and to the institutions giving support to conserve them. While advances in technology have improved the quality and availability of documentation, advances in linguistic typology and linguistic theory in general have had a profound effect on the quality of the language descriptions and preservations done. This paper focuses on the endangered languages of Latin America and their place in the digital archives along with brief review and analysis of vital contents, learning resources and materials made available on language databases. The author introduces several regional electronic language documentation efforts done by INALI, AILLA, CAILLA and OLAC among others and examines how the availability of smart gadgets and free language documentation Apps can make it possible for dwindling indigenous native speakers in Latin America opportunities to document and preserve their threatened languages. Key words: Indigenous Languages, Electronic Preservation, Databases, Archives, Cultural Revitalization, Language Revitalization, Cultural Diversity, Identity, Latin America, Language Endangerment, Language Preservation, Teaching, Learning, Electronic preservation.
2008
Copyright © 2011 by Serafín M. Coronel-Molina & John H. McDowell. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form by any means, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system (except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews) without written permission from the authors.This volume is the outcome of the First Symposium on Teaching Indigenous Languages of Latin America (STILLA), organized by the Minority Languages and Cultures of Latin America Program (MLCP) and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), which took place from August 14 to 16, 2008, at Indiana University at Bloomington. This event brought together instructors, practitioners, activists, indigenous leaders, scholars, and learners from around the globe, and was the first initiative of this scope in the world. It included research and pedagogy on the diverse languages and cultures of indigenous populations in Latin America and the...
PRODUCING AND CIRCULATING KICHWA COMMUNITY IN INTERCULTURAL ECUADOR
Economic globalization combined with increased rights for Indigenous peoples has resulted in new ways of imagining and enacting community. Neoliberal economic reforms have substantially weakened subsistence agriculture, while Ecuador’s Indigenous movement has successfully increased educational and political opportunities. While both factors weaken their collective base, rather than simply disappearing or being assimilated into dominant, mestizo society, many Indigenous communities are reconstructing themselves to reflect this new reality. This essay examines four ways through which new forms of community are articulated—political, economic, educational and communicational. Kichwa politicians have won political office in Otavalo and Cotacachi. Kichwa NGOs articulate development policies that recognize their ethnically mixed populations. The Kayambi confederation builds community through its free school in an attempt to fortify local identities, while preparing young people to participate in the wider world. Finally, OtavalosOnLine.com seeks to create a virtual community to connect its widespread following to home. This intercultural approach to community building allows them to borrow from and contribute to national and global processes without sacrificing their own identities.
Indigenous Languages, Identity And Legal Framework In Latin America: An Ecolinguistic Approach
The globalization process in which we are immersed endangers diversity, as we understand it in its broad context, on the planet. It therefore not only threatens biological plenitude but also cultural and linguistic wealth, which is decreasing rapidly (García, 2011: 506). That is why now more than ever it is essential to defend the right of all people to be different and to possess an identity, language being the most significant element of identification. The trend towards homogenization is a global reality and its effects can be seen in different areas or regions, including Latin America, the subject of this present study. The current Hispanic linguistic landscape is characterized by the coexistence of Spanish and a number of indigenous languages (Palacios, 2010: 503); however, such coexistence does not imply a de facto equality between Spanish —as the dominant language— and the minority ones. This linguistic imbalance causes many of these languages to be in danger of extinction, not due to linguistic reasons but as a result of different types of alterations which in turn cause disorder in society (Nette & Romaine, 2000: 79). This research addresses the situation of indigenous languages in three Latin American countries chosen as being representative of different multilingualism management models that exist in that region: Bolivia, Panama and Paraguay. This is a descriptive-analytical study whose main objective from a synchronic perspective is the enhancement of multilingualism in Latin America; i.e. the presentation of the region's indigenous languages as key elements of the identity and culture of indigenous peoples, and the transmission of a worldview and set of unique skills that could be lost forever, causing havoc to the planet's diversity and affecting not only their speech community, but in addition all humankind (Moure, 2012: 79).
Linguistic Landscape. An international journal, 2018
This study considers the parallel expression of language policy toward Kichwa in the linguistic landscape of Yachay, two administratively independent government-funded institutions in Ecuador. Although the institutions share a geographic location, name, and goal of becoming a sciences and technology hub for Latin America, they maintain distinct identities through their official signage, providing opportunity for consideration of how recent political and cultural ideologies toward Ecuador’s language policy have been realized in the linguistic landscape of parallel institutions. Kichwa, a constitutionally-recognized minority language of the region, is largely absent from the landscape, providing little more than a shared institutional nomenclature. Instead, the language and culture are used as a commodity for promoting pan-Ecuadorian interculturality and indigenous values, even if these values are not otherwise overtly supported. Kichwa thus represents the ‘traditional’ Ecuador, while...