Syncretic speech, linguistic ideology, and intertextuality
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Jacqueline Messing
Abstract
“Syncretism” describes the structural incorporation of indigenous languages like Mexicano (Nahuatl) from Central Mexico with majority languages like Spanish. Building on research of Hill and Hill (1986), and collaborations with local scholars including teacher Ramos Rosales Flores, We analyze a 1999 public linguistic event celebrating the Spanish publication of “Speaking Mexicano” in Tlaxcala. Syncretic Mexicano, so-called “mixed speech,” exists within a local ideological landscape in which legítimo Mexicano – true Mexicano – is an idealized, largely not-spoken form of the native language, free of Spanish. We analyze multiple ideologies and metadiscursive practices at this event. I (Messing) further explore interpretation of syncretism by locals, resident-scholars and outsider-scholars, adding intertextual complexity to the academic and local interpretations of purism.
Abstract
“Syncretism” describes the structural incorporation of indigenous languages like Mexicano (Nahuatl) from Central Mexico with majority languages like Spanish. Building on research of Hill and Hill (1986), and collaborations with local scholars including teacher Ramos Rosales Flores, We analyze a 1999 public linguistic event celebrating the Spanish publication of “Speaking Mexicano” in Tlaxcala. Syncretic Mexicano, so-called “mixed speech,” exists within a local ideological landscape in which legítimo Mexicano – true Mexicano – is an idealized, largely not-spoken form of the native language, free of Spanish. We analyze multiple ideologies and metadiscursive practices at this event. I (Messing) further explore interpretation of syncretism by locals, resident-scholars and outsider-scholars, adding intertextual complexity to the academic and local interpretations of purism.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Preface xi
- Introduction xxi
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Section 1. Approaches to the study of the indigenous languages of the Americas
- The diachrony of Ute case-marking 3
- Language contact as an inhibitor of sound change 29
- Stress in Yucatec Maya 53
- The phonetic correlates of Southern Ute stress 85
- Revisiting Tohono O’odham high vowels 107
- Head-marking inflection and the architecture of grammatical theory 133
- A case-study in grass roots development of web resources for language workers 175
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Section 2. Approaches to the study of voices and ideologies
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Language contact, shift, and endangerment – implications for policy
- Spanish in contact with indigenous tongues 203
- How can a language with 7 million speakers be endangered? 229
- A documentary ethnography of a Blackfoot language course 257
- Syncretic speech, linguistic ideology, and intertextuality 291
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Racism in discourse – analyses of practice
- Narrative discriminations in Central California’s indigenous narrative traditions 321
- The voice of (White) reason 339
- Double-voicing in the everyday language of Brazilian black activism 365
- Uptake (un)limited 389
- The silken cord 415
- Afterword 425
- Language index 431
- Subject index 433
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Preface xi
- Introduction xxi
-
Section 1. Approaches to the study of the indigenous languages of the Americas
- The diachrony of Ute case-marking 3
- Language contact as an inhibitor of sound change 29
- Stress in Yucatec Maya 53
- The phonetic correlates of Southern Ute stress 85
- Revisiting Tohono O’odham high vowels 107
- Head-marking inflection and the architecture of grammatical theory 133
- A case-study in grass roots development of web resources for language workers 175
-
Section 2. Approaches to the study of voices and ideologies
-
Language contact, shift, and endangerment – implications for policy
- Spanish in contact with indigenous tongues 203
- How can a language with 7 million speakers be endangered? 229
- A documentary ethnography of a Blackfoot language course 257
- Syncretic speech, linguistic ideology, and intertextuality 291
-
Racism in discourse – analyses of practice
- Narrative discriminations in Central California’s indigenous narrative traditions 321
- The voice of (White) reason 339
- Double-voicing in the everyday language of Brazilian black activism 365
- Uptake (un)limited 389
- The silken cord 415
- Afterword 425
- Language index 431
- Subject index 433
