Multilingualism and mixed language in the mines of Potosí (Bolivia)
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Pieter Muysken
Abstract
Using the methodology of historical sociolinguistics, this article explores multilingualism and language contact in the mines of Potosí (Bolivia) in the colonial period. Potosí was the destination of massive migration during its economic heydays around 1610 and one of the largest cities in the Western hemisphere at the time. In the mines special codes were developed, with a specialized lexicon that contains words from different languages. This lexicon was so different that the first vocabulary of the mining language was written in 1610, and many have followed from that date onward. Quechua most probably played a key role as intermediary language between two forms of speaking: the indigenous mining language of the free workers, yanaconas and mingas, probably a mix of Spanish and Quechua, and the language of the forced workers, mitayos, possibly a mix of Aymara and Quechua. The similarities between Aymara and Quechua must have contributed to this possibility of an intermediary language.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to a an anonymous reader of this article for insightful and detailed comments, to Simon van de Kerke for initially accompanying me on the fieldwork in Potosí and for further comments, and to Leonie Cornips and to people at audiences in Stellenbosch (South Africa), Leiden and Maastricht (The Netherlands), and La Paz (Bolivia) for earlier advice and reactions.
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© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: Language in the mines
- Fanakalo as a mining language in South Africa: A new overview
- Katanga Swahili and Heerlen Dutch: A sociohistorical and linguistic comparison of contact varieties in mining regions
- Grammatical features of a moribund coalminers’ language in a Belgian cité
- From flamano to urban vernacular. Linguistic and meta-linguistic heritage of first generation miners in Flemish Limburg
- Multilingualism and mixed language in the mines of Potosí (Bolivia)
- The dialect of São João da Chapada: Possible remains of a mining language in Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Discussion: Language in nature resource economies
- Book Review
- Stuart Kirsch: Mining capitalism: the relationship between corporations and their critics
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: Language in the mines
- Fanakalo as a mining language in South Africa: A new overview
- Katanga Swahili and Heerlen Dutch: A sociohistorical and linguistic comparison of contact varieties in mining regions
- Grammatical features of a moribund coalminers’ language in a Belgian cité
- From flamano to urban vernacular. Linguistic and meta-linguistic heritage of first generation miners in Flemish Limburg
- Multilingualism and mixed language in the mines of Potosí (Bolivia)
- The dialect of São João da Chapada: Possible remains of a mining language in Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Discussion: Language in nature resource economies
- Book Review
- Stuart Kirsch: Mining capitalism: the relationship between corporations and their critics
