On language regimes in the Americas: Mexicano illustrations
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José Antonio Flores Farfán
Abstract
In this article several heteroglossic expressions of language regimes will be presented. To this end, I will succinctly discuss a series of (socio) linguistic issues related to the use of one of the major Indigenous languages in Mexico – namely, Mexicano (Nahuatl) – in its political, ideological and pragmatic arenas. This includes a consideration of Mexicano political economies, entailing a dispute over the politics of representation of Mexicano verbal culture in different ambits in which language plays an outstanding role. Comparing different linguistic politics of interpretation will allow an understanding of antagonistic voices regarding competing (e.g., ethnographic, linguistic) approaches, including different linguists’ and anthropologists’ descriptions vis-à-vis varying actors’ contradictory perspectives on the same or similar facts. These will encompass political, ideological and pragmatic uses and ideologies, in both historical and contemporary domains, including the written and oral worlds.
Acknowledgements
I gratefully thank Serafín M. Coronel-Molina for inviting me to participate in this special issue. My warm thanks also go to Vannesa Anthony-Stevens for her comments on an earlier draft of this article. Last but not least, I am grateful to the anonymous reader for all his comments and suggestions. Of course, any shortcomings or errors are my own.
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© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: Indigenous language regimes in the Americas
- Indigenous Tewa language regimes across time: Persistence and transformation
- Oppressed no more? Indigenous language regimentation in plurinational Bolivia
- On language regimes in the Americas: Mexicano illustrations
- Changing livelihoods and language repertoires: hunting, fishing and gold mining in the southeast Peruvian Amazon
- Kib’eyal taq ch’ab’äl: Mayan language regimes in Guatemala
- Book Reviews
- Teresa L. McCarty: Language planning and policy in Native America: History, theory, and practice
- Regina Cortina: education of indigenous citizens in Latin America
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: Indigenous language regimes in the Americas
- Indigenous Tewa language regimes across time: Persistence and transformation
- Oppressed no more? Indigenous language regimentation in plurinational Bolivia
- On language regimes in the Americas: Mexicano illustrations
- Changing livelihoods and language repertoires: hunting, fishing and gold mining in the southeast Peruvian Amazon
- Kib’eyal taq ch’ab’äl: Mayan language regimes in Guatemala
- Book Reviews
- Teresa L. McCarty: Language planning and policy in Native America: History, theory, and practice
- Regina Cortina: education of indigenous citizens in Latin America
