Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura

“Yo no hablo haitiano, hablo patuá”: The Construction and Enregisterment of Linguistic Difference in Haitian Dominican Migration Contexts

2025-06-05T09:52:55-05:00

This qualitative case study analyzes how inhabitants of transnational communities in rural Dominican Republic, known as bateyes, construct linguistic diversity arising from the coexistence of Spanish and Haitian Creole within the context of migration dynamics. The research was conducted in August 2022 with 11 bilingual Spanish-Creole inhabitants of 12 bateyes in the Dominican Republic. The data were analyzed using discourse analysis and linguistic ideology theories. Special attention was given to registers (i. e. named forms of Spanish and Haitian Creole ideologically linked to specific kinds of speakers and communicative contexts) that exist within the batey, and how these were evaluated by speakers. The findings reveal a contrast between how batey residents construct linguistic diversity and how academic and folk metalinguistic discourse see it. The latter describe a Haitianized register of Spanish associated with Haitian-born and Haitian-descended speakers, as opposed to the “pure” Spanish of Dominicans without ties to Haiti, while also mentioning a vague Dominicanized Creole. Batey inhabitants, on the other hand, perceive ethnic variation in Spanish as irrelevant and emphasize a specific Creole register known as patuá which is attributed to second-generation immigrants and seen as a deficient form of Haitian Creole. These results suggest that while participants challenge negative attitudes toward Haitian Creole prevalent in the country, they, nonetheless, uphold ideologies that devalue migrant varieties in favor of the native standard. This is the first study to provide insights into how batey inhabitants perceive and ideologically enregister linguistic differences in their transnational setting.

Safeguarding the Garífuna: Initiatives and Challenges in Language Preservationon the Caribbean Coast of Guatemala

2025-08-26T09:34:03-05:00

This article aims to analyze the current situation of linguistic contact between Spanish and Garifuna in the community of Livingston (Guatemala), with the purpose of understanding the factors that influence the displacement or mainte-nance of Garifuna and evaluating the effectiveness of educational and community strategies aimed at its preservation. The data were obtained through a sociolinguistic question-naire and semi-structured interviews conducted during fieldwork between 2024 and 2025. The analysis focuses on the role of the home, community initiatives, and intercultural bilingual education in language transmission. The results show that, although Garifuna continues to be spoken in Livingston, the younger generation no longer acquires it as their mother tongue, and Spanish predominates in everyday life. Among the most influential factors are monolingual schooling, lack of family transmission, and the limited effectiveness of language policies. It is concluded that the revitalization of Garifuna requires effective coordination between schools, families, and communities, better teacher training, and sustainable strategies that integrate Garifuna as an active component of cultural identity and daily communication.

Survivance in Indigenous Schools: Wayuu Students’ Resistance to Coloniality in La Guajira (Colombia)

2025-08-11T12:31:11-05:00

Colonial language policies and teaching practices continue to impact Indigenous people’s languages and epistemologies both in and out of their territories, even when Indigenous students attend schools intended to sustain their lifeways. In this critical case study, I examine the multifaceted dimensions of coloniality that Wayuu students from La Guajira, Colombia, continue to endure in their education. However, because Indigenous peoples are not passive in their navigation of coloniality, I also describe their unwavering commitment to accessing education in their own territory and the multiple forms of resistance Wayuu students engage in to sustain their linguistic and cultural identities. This article, therefore, is not about survival, but survivance. It is about Wayuu ninth-grade students’ ongoing stories of survival and resistance against the coloniality of power, being, and knowledge, which pushes for linguistic assimilation into Spanish language and dominates their schooling experience. This coloniality, which is buttressed by colonial education policies, standardized testing, and discourses of globalization and social mobility disregards their Native ways of knowing and doing. I conclude this article by arguing for the need of epistemic disobedience to challenge and transform the colonial systems enforced by educational institutions and policymakers, who continue to advance coloniality on Native lands.

Endangered Languages and Varieties in the Americas

2025-10-14T13:50:23-05:00

Rethinking Language Education: The Case for Multilinguality

2024-09-18T15:28:52-05:00

This article explores multilinguality as a fundamental human trait challenging traditional views that treat language as a discrete unit in both theory and pedagogy, focusing on India’s language policies and practices. In view of India’s Three Language Formula and the recent National Education Policy, which often reflect a global North-centric bias, marginalising the linguistic richness of the global South, this theoretical article argues for a re-evaluation of terms like “a language,” bilingualism,” and “multilingualism,” while challenging perspectives of translanguaging, code-switching, and hyper-diversity. It advocates for a more nuanced understanding of language as multilinguality, highlighting how it is inherent in all educational settings and how the diverse linguistic resources learners bring to school can be used to enhance cognitive development and foster inclusive environments. By addressing the inequities perpetuated by dominant languages of power, this article suggests strategies rooted in multilinguality for teacher training, curriculum development, syllabus, and classroom processes. The aim is to promote a more inclusive, equitable, and globally relevant framework for education informed by multilinguality that values innate universal grammar, linguistic fluidity and social sensitivity. This would also bridge the purported gap between the global North and the global South.

The Yawalapíti (Aruak) of Alto Xingu: Their History and Sociolinguistic Status

2025-06-17T17:12:10-05:00

The Yawalapíti language of the Arawak family —the last speakers of which live in Mato Grosso (Brazil)— is critically endangered, with very few fluent speakers remaining. This article reports on an exploratory study of the sociolinguistics of the Yawalapíti people based on ethnographic field research conducted intermittently since 2008. It describes the ethno-historical process of the Yawalapíti people, their social relations with neighboring peoples, and their sociolinguistic situation. The Yawalapíti case is emblematic with its history of depopulation, consequent dissolution as a community, and subsequent regrouping, in which exogamous marriages with speakers of other languages were a key factor. The result of this process is a multilingual village with most of its inhabitants proficient in the Kuikuro (Karib) and Kamayurá (Tupí-Guaraní) languages, unlike other peoples of the Upper Xingu. The Yawalapíti managed to maintain an open social dynamic, in which social interactions with other peoples were fundamental to their regrouping, but at the same time also led to a decline in spaces for speaking and intergenerational transmission. These processes ultimately influenced a community-based language revitalization movement focused on children, which has created new spaces for speaking and produced educational materials. Some of the evidence presented here suggests that the sociolinguistic situation of this people is not an exception, but rather the limits of a relational process at work in the Upper Xingu.

Identity Recognition and Language Revitalization Trajectories in Intercultural Bilingual Education Teacher Education

2025-06-09T07:29:46-05:00

This article examines the language revitalization trajectories of two graduates from a teacher education program in intercultural bilingual education in Peru who were not socialized as speakers of the Aymara language in their childhood. Through the analysis of longitudinal narrative data using a critical sociolinguistic framework, it is shown that returning to their Indigenous language and culture has involved recognizing their speaker identity and an ethnic-linguistic identity that has been both enabled and hindered by the different identity models legitimized in the spaces navigated by the graduates. Findings reveal how these speakers view their teacher education program as both a catalyst and a hindrance to their identity as Aymara and their oral development of the Aymara language due to the weight of the prevailing monoglossic ethnic-linguistic ideologies and native-speaker ideologies in this arena. Also, findings show how they strive to identify themselves as legitimate Aymara people, active Aymara learners, and committed Aymara promoters in spaces outside the intercultural bilingual education system which are more open to heteroglossic identity models of ethnic-linguistic identity and bilingualism in Indigenous languages and Spanish. This article discusses the importance of examining identity and speakerhood models at play in language revitalization processes and highlights some implications for research and teacher education.

The Color of Value: English as an Index of Racialization on the Brazil-Guyana border

2025-08-11T10:53:57-05:00

This article discusses language ideological work in the discourse of Guyanese migrants on the Brazil-Guyana border regarding their sociolinguistic repertoires. An analysis of interviews with racialized Guyanese migrants in Brazil reveals the use and exchange values attributed by them to the linguistic resource “English.” Drawing on the theoretical and methodological framework of studies on language in advanced capitalism, language ideologies, racialized language ideologies, and use-and-exchange value, we examine excerpts from interviews with Guyanese migrants living in the Brazil-Guyana border area about their linguistic repertoire, with an emphasis on “English.” The analysis shows that, for different references to “English,” there are different valuations. The use value of references to English is minimal, due to the feeling of shame in speaking it, marked by raciolinguistic ideologies. As for English on a local scale, its exchange value seems lower than expected for this “global language,” as participants do not report using it for economic advantage or social prestige. Thus, we broaden the understanding of the intersections between language and race by showing how, in this economically peripheral setting, raciolinguistic ideologies constrain the attribution of value to a linguistic resource that is otherwise globally valued.

Language Ideologies Among Kamënẗsá Biyá People in Sibundoy Valley (Colombia): Identity, Use, Transmission, Preservation

2025-09-22T14:32:57-05:00

This qualitative ethnographic article analyzes the linguistic ideologies of the Kamënts̈á Biyá people from the Sibundoy Valley to understand their language use practices, the influence of Spanish on identity and intergenerational transmission, and their implications on domains of use and language preservation. The study involved 11 community participants and was based on a sociolinguistic, decolonial ethnographic and participant observation perspectives. The results indicate that, in addition to its identity and ceremonial significance, linguistic ideologies modulate the daily circulation of the language, either restricting or expanding domains of use beyond migration and contact with Spanish. However, revitalization strategies, such as bilingual intercultural education, community radio, and the recovery of ritual spaces, strengthen the language identity and use. We discuss dynamics of linguistic ideologies, language as a symbol of identity, and preservation efforts of indigenous communities in related studies. In conclusion, for a linguistic revitalization beyond teaching, it is necessary to design strategies linking cultural practices and strengthening intergenerational ties.

What Is Not Named, Does It Exist? Ethnolinguistic Visibility in the 2022 Census in Argentina

2025-06-05T05:17:30-05:00

This research article presents some lines of interpretation regarding the ethnolinguistic survey in the 2020 Census (2022) in Argentina, consisting of three questions. The first one, an open-ended question on Indigenous self-recognition was addressed to the entire population—a milestone in the country’s census history. The second and third ones—dependent on the answer to the first one—inquired about the name and language of those people, respectively. This research article focused on that glottopolitical event, developing an analysis by revisiting three areas of interest. Firstly, a brief history of censuses in the country will be recounted, with an emphasis on the process in the last few years at the Latin American and national levels, following the adherence to the International Labor Organization’s 169 Convention that established free and informed consultation. Secondly, we will analyze how the question on Indigenous languages was incorporated in 2022 and the census process, in line with the paradigm of linguistic rights, the ideology of “access,” and the ideology that supports the univocal link between people, culture, and language. Thirdly, we will explore some glottopolitical dimensions for the discussion on consultation and ethnolinguistic visibility, as an instrument of both the state and activists. This article examines the glottopolitical dimensions of censuses as input for linguistic revitalization and as a reflection of linguistic ideologies, while warning of the risk of superficial accounting, based on misleading criteria, for Indigenous languages.

Linguistic Weakening of Nasa-Yuwe in the Path Yu' Community (Cauca, Colombia)

2025-07-17T15:01:04-05:00

This article analyses the weakening of the Nasa-Yuwe language among the Path Yu’ community members, who settled in Cajibío, Cauca, Colombia. A mixed-methods approach with a qualitative dominant focus was followed, with interviews, focus groups, participant observation, and sociolinguistic surveys as data gathering tools. Findings show that Nasa-Yuwe language is severely weakened, with 60.5% of the population being bilingual in Nasa-Yuwe and Spanish, and Spanish being the dominant language. Interaction in Nasa-Yuwe language was observed to be limited across the territory. Only among older adults is Nasa-Yuwe predominant, while Spanish is dominant among adults and youth. The analysis showed that migration was the main reason for linguistic displacement. The arrival of the Nasa Indigenous people in the receiving area created contact with Spanish-speaking farmers, who showed rejection and discrimination towards indigenous language communities, leading to unfavorable linguistic attitudes toward their own language among the Indigenous people. This complex situation affects Nasa-Yuwe language intergenerational transmission. According to the language vitality scale of the Endangered Languages Catalog, Nasa-Yuwe in Path Yu’ is classified as severely endangered.

Lexical Availability Among Young Palenquero Creole Speakers: A Sociolinguistic Analysis

2025-07-21T09:23:28-05:00

This article explores lexical availability in Palenquero Creole among bilingual students enrolled in 5th and 11th school grades at the Benkos Biohó Peasant Ethnic Educational Institution in the village of San Basilio de Palenque (Colombia). This study was conducted against the backdrop of a language revitalization process. To measure lexical availability sociocultural surveys, a bilingualism test, and a lexical availability test based on 17 thematic fields of interest were applied using a sociolinguistic and quantitative approach. Findings suggest that the family domain manifests greater lexical availability and cohesion, whereas technical domains exhibit lower frequency and diversity, reflecting the effects of diglossia and the influence of Spanish. Although no gender-based differences were found, statistically significant differences by grade level were observed, suggesting that schooling is an indirect indicator of competence in Palenquero Creole. This study contributes to filling a gap in research on lexical availability in Creole languages, as most previous studies have focused on monolingual or bilingual communities rather than in minoritized languages undergoing revitalization. These findings provide empirical evidence for understanding bilingualism and revitalization processes, and offer recommendations to strengthen the teaching and use of the language.

Making Kichwa Salasaka Visible: A Linguistic Landscape Analysis

2025-08-08T08:19:38-05:00

Linguistic landscape allows us to describe and identify the (in)visibility of languages in public space and to infer the motives, ideologies, and tensions behind people’s decisions on using one language or another in relation to the development of linguistic landscape in a given territory. This article examines the linguistic landscape of Kichwa Salasaka town, an Indigenous community in Ecuador, to assess the presence or absence of the Kichwa language on signs in public space. To do this, we gathered signage in one of the busiest roads in Salasaka, and observed the coexistence of Kichwa, Spanish, and English, as an evidence of multilingualism in the linguistic landscape of Salasaka. Subsequently, we explored the social meaning attributed to Kichwa in the linguistic landscape using ethnographic and sociolinguistic methods. On the one hand, the presence of Kichwa language in the Kwichua Salasaka town linguistic landscape shows a connection with the culture and the territory, and above all an effort by the community to make their language visible. On the other hand, these attempts to promote and maintain the language lack clear linguistic policies, which is reflected in the different ways of writing Kichwa. The study contributes to the understanding of how Indigenous communities create strategies of resistance and visibility in public spaces, providing inputs both for strengthening local language revitalization initiatives and for enriching academic discussions on multilingualism in Indigenous contexts.

Language Revitalization and the Persistence of Mapudungun: A Review of Critical and Territory-based Perspectives

2025-06-09T09:39:58-05:00

Mapudungun is one of the Indigenous languages with the greatest presence in Chile and Argentina. Its current situation has been marked by a progressive language shift, evidenced by a significant decrease in domains of use and number of speakers, low social prestige, and a weakened in intergenerational transmission. This article presents a scopus review from a critical sociolinguistic perspective, analyzing the revitalization of Mapudungun in light of social hierarchies, power dynamics, and broader struggles for social justice and community self-determination. Since the 20th century, linguistic studies have predicted the imminent disappearance of Mapudungun. However, in the early decades of the 21st century, efforts toward language revitalization and strengthening have expanded across various fields. This is reflected in the growing number of studies addressing the revitalization of the Mapuche language. In the context of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, this panorama is relevant for understanding the diversity of issues addressed by these studies, their potential research gaps, and the various revitalization experiences.

Book review: Portuñhol ¿qué es? como se faz?

2025-06-06T14:59:48-05:00

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