Mapudungun according to its speakers: Mapuche intellectuals and the influence of standard language ideology

Abstract

In this paper, we analyse the cultural models (or folk theory of language) that the Mapuche intellectual elite have about Mapudungun, the native language of the Mapuche people still spoken today in Chile as the major minority language. Our theoretical frame is folk linguistics and studies of language ideology, but we have also taken an applied linguistics approach to address the effects that such cultural models have had on language planning and revitalisation. We will propose that the view of the Mapuche elite is largely influenced by the standard language ideology, and that this influence has been detrimental for the revitalisation of Mapudungun. We observe this cultural model in a sample of texts, interviews and data obtained during ethnographic fieldwork in Chile.

Keywords::

• anthropological linguistics
• language planning
• language revitalisation
• language ideologies
• folk linguistics
• Mapudungun

Notes on contributors

Cristián Lagos is an assistant professor at the Department of Linguistics of the University of Chile. He holds a degree in Social Anthropology (University of Chile) and a PhD in Hispanic Linguistics (University of Valladolid, Spain). He has conducted extensive research on the situation of Mapudungun in Chile, within an anthropological linguistics framework.

Marco Espinoza is an instructor at the Department of Linguistics of the University of Chile. He holds a MA in English Linguistics (University of Chile). His current research interests include intercultural pragmatics and language planning of indigenous Chilean languages.

Darío Rojas is an assistant professor at the Department of Linguistics of the University of Chile. His research areas include language planning and language ideologies applied to Spanish. He is currently writing his PhD thesis (University of Valladolid, Spain) on the subject of language ideologies among Spanish-speaking elites from nineteenth century Chile.

Notes

1. This overemphasis on corpus planning has also been identified as a major obstacle in language revitalisation by the same members of indigenous groups that are currently working to reverse language shift in Chile. A case in point is the call for presentations for the VIII International Congress in Aymara Language and Culture held in Iquique, Chile, in December 2012. According to the organisers, current attempts of LP in Chile have excessively focused on language and its technical aspects, which have led to a divorce between specialists and those directly affected by LP, i.e. speakers of minority languages. (http://www.unap.cl/prontus_unap/site/artic/20120924/pags/20120924100128.html).