Yucatec Maya language planning and the struggle of the linguistic standardization process

Anne Marie Guerrettaz

doi:10.1515/ijsl-2019-2048

Article

Yucatec Maya language planning and the struggle of the linguistic standardization process

Anne Marie Guerrettaz

Published/Copyright: November 12, 2019

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From the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language Volume 2019 Issue 260

Abstract

This study on Yucatec Maya language planning analyzes the linguistic standardization process over a six-year period. The primary research site was the programa, a mandatory Yucatec Maya course for 1,600 Indigenous Education teachers in Mexico. Alongside this acquisition planning effort, other government agencies simultaneously produced an official standard Maya. Programa administrators who oppose official standardization made their own model of Maya in widely distributed government textbooks. Neither model was the main target of programa language teaching; the Maya of classrooms is characterized by vast variation. Although the government promulgated an official standard in 2014, standardization of Maya has not been attained. The difficulties of creating a popular standard by and for Indigenous language speakers are analyzed. Social networks upholding different models of Maya are examined through an economy of language planning framework that views language as social capital and integrates knowledge and learning economy concepts. This research presents the notion of social-linguistic orders to understand how different models of a language coexist and/or compete in a language planning endeavor.

Keywords: standardization; economy of language; Yucatec Maya; language planning

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by New Faculty Seed Grants from Washington State University’s Office of Research and College of Education, the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Culturales in Mexico, the Office of the Vice President for International Affairs and the Graduate and Professional Student Organization at Indiana University, and the International Association of Women’s Clubs. I am tremendously grateful to the teachers, students, administrators, policy officials, and other stakeholders in Yucatec Maya language planning who made this research possible. I thank Miguel Oscar Chan Dzul, Irma Pomol Cahum, Bill Johnston, R. McKenna Brown, Doreen Ewert, César Félix-Brasdefer, Bradley Levinson, Yolanda Poot Tamay, Hilario Chi Canul, Julio Hoil Canul, Gisela Ernst-Slavit, Florian Coulmas, and the anonymous reviewers at the International Journal of the Sociology of Language for their comments on earlier versions of this paper.

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Published Online: 2019-11-12

Published in Print: 2019-11-26

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https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2019-2048

Keywords for this article

standardization; economy of language; Yucatec Maya; language planning