Startseite Spanish and Kaqchikel-Maya: A study in town and village in Guatemala’s central highlands
Artikel
Lizenziert
Nicht lizenziert Erfordert eine Authentifizierung

Spanish and Kaqchikel-Maya: A study in town and village in Guatemala’s central highlands

  • Jonathan Holmquist EMAIL logo und Hana Muzika Kahn
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 18. August 2017

Abstract

This article examines patterns of maintenance and shift affecting Kaqchikel-Maya in contact with Spanish in a municipality of the central highlands of Guatemala. It examines self-reported skills in the use of Spanish and Kaqchikel-Maya as well as directly assessed knowledge of Kaqchikel in relation to ethnicity, generations, and gender in town and village in the municipality. The study draws on fieldwork between 2011 and 2013 in the municipality of Parramos, Chimaltenango. Two researchers in collaboration with native Spanish-and-Kaqchikel-speaking assistants surveyed 280 speakers. Data are based on responses to an orally administered questionnaire that included self-reporting of language skills and direct assessment measures focusing on knowledge of Kaqchikel vocabulary as well as on the ability to respond to conversational questions in Kaqchikel. Results are interpreted in relation to stability vs. instability in the use of the two languages and to the asymmetry of the bilingualism that distinguishes the ethnic communities.

Appendix: Sample sizes

Village or TownSelf-IdentificationGenderTotal
MaleFemale
VillageLadinoGenerationStudents112
IndígenaGenerationStudents222244
Parents81119
Seniors61016
TownLadinoGenerationStudents304171
Parents61521
Seniors7815
IndígenaGenerationStudents182947
Parents151328
Seniors9817
Total122158280

References

Annis, Sheldon. 1987. God and production in a Guatemalan town. Austin: University of Texas Press.10.7560/727366Suche in Google Scholar

Becker Richards, Julia. 1998. Case study one: San Marcos La Laguna. In Susan Garzon, R. McKenna Brown, Julia Becker Richards & Wuqu’ Ajpub’ (eds.), The life of our language: Kaqchikel Maya maintenance, shift, and revitalization, 62–100. Austin: The University of Texas Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Bilaniuk, Laada. 2003. Gender, language attitudes, and language status in Ukraine. Language in Society 32. 47–78.10.1017/S0047404503321037Suche in Google Scholar

Chong, Hoi Kong. 1977. A study of maintenance and shift in Singapore as a multilingual society. RELC Journal 8(2).43–62.10.1177/003368827700800203Suche in Google Scholar

Dorian, Nancy. 1981. Language death: The life cycle of a Scottish Gaelic dialect. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.10.9783/9781512815580Suche in Google Scholar

England, Nora C. 1998. Mayan efforts toward language preservation. In Lenore A. Grenoble & Lindsay J. Whaley (eds.), Endangered languages: Language loss and community response, 99–116. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139166959.005Suche in Google Scholar

Farber, Anne. 1978. Language choice and problems of identity in a highlands Mayan town. New York: Columbia University dissertation.Suche in Google Scholar

Fishman, Joshua A. 1964. Language maintenance and language shift as a field of inquiry: A definition of the field and suggestions for its further development. Linguistics 9. 32–70.10.1515/ling.1964.2.9.32Suche in Google Scholar

Gal, Susan. 1978. Peasant men can’t get wives: Language change and sex roles in a bilingual community. Language in Society 7(1).1–16.10.1017/S0047404500005303Suche in Google Scholar

Gal, Susan. 1979. Language shift: Social determinants of linguistic change in bilingual Austria. New York: Academic Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Garzon, Susan. 1998. Case study two: San Juan Comalapa. In Susan Garzon, R. McKenna Brown, Julia Becker Richards & Wuqu’ Ajpub’ (eds.), The life of our language: Kaqchikel Maya maintenance, shift, and revitalization, 129–154. Austin: The University of Texas Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Holmquist, Jonathan. 1987. Style choice in a bidialectal village. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 63. 21–30.10.1515/ijsl.1987.63.21Suche in Google Scholar

Holmquist, Jonathan & Hana Muzika Kahn. 2012. Spanish/Kaqchikel contact in town and village: A focus on youth. International journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest 31(2). 57-77.Suche in Google Scholar

Indexmundi.com. Guatemala age structure. http://www.indexmundi.com/guatemala/age_structure.html (accessed 23 June 2015).Suche in Google Scholar

Instituto Nacional de Estadística. 2012. Informe de Censo. Guatemala: Guatemala.Suche in Google Scholar

Kulick, Don. 1992. Language shift and cultural reproduction: Socialization, self, and syncretism in a Papua New Guinea village. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Kulick, Don. 1998. Anger, gender, language shift, and the politics of revelation in a Papua New Guinea village. In Bambi B. Schieffelin, Kathryn A. Woolard & Paul V. Kroskrity (eds.), Language ideologies: Practice and theory, 87–102. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Lieberson, Stanley. 1972. Bilingualism in Montreal: A demographic analysis. In Joshua A. Fisman (ed.), Advances in the sociology of language, vol. 2, 231–254. The Hague: Mouton.10.1515/9783110880434-012Suche in Google Scholar

Lieberson, Stanley & McCabe. Edward 1978. Domains of language usage and another tongue shift in Nairobi. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 18. 69–82.10.1515/ijsl.1978.18.69Suche in Google Scholar

Lisón-Tolosana, Carmelo. 1966. Belmonte de los Caballeros: A sociological study of a Spanish town. Oxford: Clarendon.Suche in Google Scholar

MacKinnon, Kenneth. 1986. Gender, occupational and educational factors in Gaelic language shift and regeneration. In Gearóid Mac Eoin, Anders Ahlqvist & Donncha Ó hAodha (eds.), Third international conference on minority languages: Celtic papers, 47–71. Clevedon and Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters Ltd.Suche in Google Scholar

Matzar, García, Pedro Oscar, Valero Toj Cotzajay & Domingo Coc Tutz. 1999. Gramática del idioma kaqchikel. Guatemala, La Antigua Guatemala: Proyecto Lingüístico Francisco Marroquín.Suche in Google Scholar

McKenna Brown, R. 1998. Case study two: San Antonio Aguas Calientes and the Quinizilapa valley. In Susan Garzon, R. McKenna Brown, Julia Becker Richards & Wuqu’ Ajpub’ (eds.), The life of our language: Kaqchikel Maya maintenance, shift, and revitalization, 101–128. Austin: The University of Texas Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Mineduc.gob.gt. Ministerio de Educación, Acuerdo Ministerial No. 35, Guatemala, 13 de enero de 2005. https://www.mineduc.gob.gt/DIGebI/documents/leyes/035-2005.pdf.Suche in Google Scholar

Nichols, Patricia C. 1998. Black women in the rural south: Conservative and innovative. In Jennifer Coates (ed.), Language and gender: A reader, 56–63. Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.Suche in Google Scholar

Silva-Corvalán, Carmen. 2004. Spanish in the Southwest. In Edward Finegan & John R. Rickford (eds.), Language in the USA, 205–229. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511809880.013Suche in Google Scholar

Smith-Hefner, Nancy J. 2009. Language shift, gender, and ideologies of modernity in central Java, Indonesia. Linguistic Anthropology 19(1). 57–77.10.1111/j.1548-1395.2009.01019.xSuche in Google Scholar

Spence Sharp, Marva. 2001. Sex, occupation and language choice: The case of the Limón creole speech community. Kañina, Revista de Artes y Letras 25(1). 49–54.Suche in Google Scholar

Tanczos, Vilmos. 2012. Language shift among the moldavian csangos. Cluj-Napoca: Editura Instit. Pentru Studiera Problemelor Minoritatilor Nationale.Suche in Google Scholar

Thomason, Sarah G. 2001. Language contact. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Unesco.org. UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/index.php.Suche in Google Scholar

Verdugo De Lima, Lucia. 2003. Situación lingüística en Guatemala. Boletín de lingüística y educación 98. 2–6.Suche in Google Scholar

Villa, Daniel & Susana V. Rivera Mills. 2009. Spanish maintenance and loss in the US Southwest: History in the making. Spanish in Context 6. 7–25.10.1075/sic.6.1Suche in Google Scholar

Zentella, Ana C. 2002. Spanish in the Northeast. In Eduard Finegan & John R. Rickford (eds.), Language in the USA, 182–204. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2017-8-18
Published in Print: 2017-9-26

© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Heruntergeladen am 3.10.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/ijsl-2017-0028/html?srsltid=AfmBOornWPhLsrtGgQgwFHJpeCLva3nPGYF99VGeIrwswHtCh7oYof9Q
Button zum nach oben scrollen