Mapoyo language revitalisation at risk: when variation leads to uncertainty

ABSTRACT

Mapoyo, a Carib language of Venezuela with only one native language speaker, is very close to becoming dormant. Recent interest in the revitalisation of the language has led to classes being imparted in the elementary school and to teachers trying to learn the language and to reinforce it in the school. However, in 2013 when there were 3 speakers left, variation within and among them has led to uncertainty among the language learners which in turn has led to diminishing use. I argue, based on observations in the community and interviews with the teachers, that a ‘standard language ideology’ is putting Mapoyo language revitalisation at risk and that therefore any revitalisation project needs to address ideological domains as well as pragmatic concerns.

KEYWORDS:

• Language ideologies
• language revitalisation
• Mapoyo
• standard language

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This research was carried out with the approval of the University of Western Ontario’s Non-Medical Research Board under project #106506 under the responsibility of Dr Tania Granadillo as Principal Investigator. All participants provided informed consent, which was a mix of both written and oral consent, as appropriate to the context, and included in informed consent was consent to publish this research and to be identified by their names. Additionally, the whole village was informed of the research in a village meeting and was encouraged to ask questions and guide the research.

2 From 1996 to 1999, under the supervision of Dr Maria Eugenia Villalón, Francia Medina and Tania Granadillo were research assistants in the project S1-2786 ‘The sound system of the Mapoyo Language’ funded by CONICIT (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas-Venezuela).

3 Candecho passed away in October 2016. A new language teacher, a learner, has taken this role in the school.

4 This is accurate as of 2013. Palomo finally got connected to the public electricity grid in 2014.

5 Misiones are the government funded programmes created under H. Chávez that provide people with some income as part of their participation. For example, Misión Madres del Barrio (mission mothers of the neighbourhood) provides a salary to women to create home daycare centers.

6 Speaker numbers is a very complex situation which is beyond the scope of this paper. This is part of the theme of enumeration in endangered languages as presented in Hill (2002).

7 A kind of bird.

8 Neither Justa nor Chua have taken part in any documentation project so there is no data available to compare their speech to Candecho’s.

9 There is even less known about this language than there is about Mapoyo.

10 There is a ‘Museo Comunitario’ (community museum) in the village that was developed with funds from the Ministry of Culture. There have been two exhibits.