Quechua language shift, maintenance, and revitalization in the Andes: the case for language planning

Abstract

Although Quechua is spoken by eight to twelve million people across six South American countries, by most measures, Quechua is an endangered language. This article provides an overview of the current situation of Quechua language shift, maintenance, and revitalization, and makes a case for the importance of language planning for the survival and development of the language. We use Fishman's notion of physical/ demographic, social, and cultural dislocations as an organizing rubric for discussing Quechua's current situation (Fishman 1991: 55-65), and the typology of status, corpus, and acquisition planning to discuss the role of language planning in Quechua's position, both current and future. We take into account the role of linguistic ideologies and language attitudes in language shift, maintenance, and revitalization and in the language-planning process, working from the assumption that language is a critical element of ethnic identity for many Quechua speakers in the Andes. AbstractAlthough Quechua is spoken by eight to twelve million people across six South American countries, by most measures, Quechua is an endangered language. This article provides an overview of the current situation of Quechua language shift, maintenance, and revitalization, and makes a case for the importance of language planning for the survival and development of the language. We use Fishman's notion of physical/demographic, social, and cultural dislocations as an organizing rubric for discussing Quechua's current situation (Fishman 1991: 55-65), and the typology of status, corpus, and acquisition planning to discuss the role of language planning in Quechua's position, both current and future. We take into account the role of linguistic ideologies and language attitudes in language shift, maintenance, and revitalization and in the language-planning process, working from the assumption that language is a critical element of ethnic identity for many Quechua speakers in the Andes.

University Indigenous Students’ Perceptions towards Kichwa, Spanish and English

“…"Languages with low prestige lose linguistic functions; languages that lose functions ultimately die" (Palomino, 2015, p. 40). In fact, many Quechua dialects have already disappeared, as explained by Adelaar (1991) in (Hornberger et al, 2006). Based on some statistical data from Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censo del Ecuador (2010), the number of Kichwa speakers was 730.104.…”

“…It is a Quechua variety which comes from the second language group Huampuy (Quechua II varieties) (Hornberger & Coronel-Molina, 2006). It is spoken by Ecuadorian indigenous people living in the Andes Mountains Range and some parts of the Amazon basin.…”

“…Mainly, there is a lack of written materials (newspapers, books, magazines and many more). It has limited the Kichwa language diffusion (Hornberger et al, 2006). (The Bible has been translated into Kichwa for evangelization purposes though).…”

“…There are seven pronouns. Adjectives are placed before nouns (UCLA, n/d), (Cerron, 1987), and (Hornberger et al, 2006).…”

“…Furthermore, "Indigenous language speakers frequently opt not to use their language in many situations in order to avoid the stigma attached to speaking it, a tendency referred to as linguistic shame or linguistic asphyxia" (ibid). Addressing this issue, speaking Spanish rather than Kichwa demonstrates a lack of loyalty to their own native language, plus a significant stigmatization (Hornberger et al, 2006). Surprisingly, even though some college indigenous students are limited in Spanish and Kichwa (Romero et al, 2017), they do not deny their ethnic identity.…”