Josep Cru, Newcastle University
Promoting Maya in Yucatan and the need for
ideological clarification
Language diversity in Mexico
Source: Comisión para los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas (CDI). México 2000.
Yucatec Maya among Mexican indigenous languages
Features:
Relatively large number of speakers (786,113 speakers, INEGI 2010)
Fairly homogeneous and standardised
Hieroglyphic writing system in pre-Conquest times
Current trends:
Rapid and widespread language shift to Spanish
Ideological clarification
Concept suggested by Fishman in Reversing Language Shift (1991) and
Can Threatened Languages Be Saved (2001) but undertheorised.
Diglossia as key concept linked with ideological clarification. The first
goal of RLS is to attain diglossia, assuming prior ideological clarification.
Steps 8 through 5 of GIDS scale (1991: 395). Step 6 (the home-familynieghbourhood) is the basis of mother tongue transmission.
Fishman’s definition (2001: 17)
RLS movements must realise from the very outset of their ideological
clarification that ethnolinguistic authenticity and identity must be
associated with Xish versions of modern Yish-dominated pop-culture
and consumerism (…) but, even more importantly, with a continuing
ethnohumanistic, ethnoreligious and ethnocultural constellations of
beliefs, behaviours and attitudes. (My emphasis)
Case study and elaborated definition of the concept
Dauenhauer and Dauenhauer (1998) about Southeast Alaska situation:
[There is] a broad gap and disparity between verbally expressed goals
on the one hand (generally advocating language and cultural
preservation) and unstated but deeply felt emotions and anxieties on
the other (generally advocating or contributing to abandonment).
(1998: 62)
P. Kroskrity (2009) Language Renewal as Sites of Ideological Struggle
Language ideological clarification is the process of identifying issues
of language ideological contestation within a heritage language
community, including both beliefs and feelings that are indigenous to
that community and those introduced by outsiders (such as linguists
and government officials), that can negatively impact community
efforts to successfully engage in language maintenance and renewal.
Ideologies of language promotion in Yucatán
Research methods: ethnographic work (interviews in the filed),
discourse analysis (about 400 news items) and some quantitative
information (census data)
Main features:
Timid and piecemeal language policies with lack of coordination among
social actors and the different administrative levels in Mexico
(federation, state and municipality).
Predominance of macro level and vertical strategies (top down, eg.
Indemaya) Grassroots organisation is almost non-existent and weak.
These strategies reproduce classic models of language planning: action
on (corpus, status, acquisition and prestige/image planning).
Some examples of vertical strategies
Request for granting official status to Maya (status planning).
Concern about the “quality” of the Maya language . Perceived need to
create lacking specific terminology, neologism, dictionaries,
pedagogical grammars. There is an Academy of the Maya Language
(but under-resourced and understaffed) and possibility to create
an Institute of the Maya Language? (corpus planning)
Emphasis on spreading “lectoescritura” (literacy) and the need to
introduce Maya in the formal education system (acquisition
planning).
Public discourses (language ideological debate) in the media on
(re)valorising Maya (image / prestige planning) as an important
component of the regional identity.
Some contradictions arising from vertical strategies
Spanish is not the official language ‘de iure’ in Mexico, according to
the Mexican Constitution in force since1917. Maya is a national
language, as is Spanish and all other indigenous language of
Mexico. (LGDLPI 2003, article 4).
Focus on the “code” and language essentialisation gives rise to purist
ideologies that may have a negative impact on language
reproduction (xe’ek’ Maya and jach Maya).
A large majority of Maya speakers are not literate in the language and
use only in its oral form.
The formal education system has historically been monolingual,
centralised and prescriptivist and the most important
homogenising tool of the nation-state.
Official rhetoric values the Maya past but Maya cuture is often
folklorised and commodified for tourist consumption.
Alternatives to vertical language promotion
More attention needed to the micro level, to the final agents of
revitalisation.
Emphasis on tactics, movements that stem from the grassroots instead
of strategies that are dictated from official institutions and power
structures (De Certeau “The Practice of Everyday Life”).
Promotion of (horizontal) grassroots initiatives which stress local
meaning (use of local communicative practices: riddles, “tsikbal”
(storytelling).
Inclusive policies based on oral uses of the language, going beyond
“belle-letrism”, without neglecting the development of literacy.
Oral domains of use to explore in more depth: radio, theatre, music.
Audio-visual proposals: video, cinema.
Use of social media: email, sms, facebook, blogs, wikis.
Advantages of horizontal tactics
Emphasis on orality, on non-institutionalised and spontaneous uses of
language.
More flexibility allowed to the non-normative use of oral varieties.
More attractive and popular domains for young people, who are key in
the process of language maintenance and transmission.
The status of the language is raised. Counterexample to stereotypes
associated with minoritised languages (backward, outdated,
spoken by the elderly, etc.).
In the case of the Internet, deterritorialization and consolidation of a
digital community that uses Maya, which is important as well for
growing transnational users (migration to USA).
Responsibility and agency fall on the speakers rather than in the
institutions.
Conclusions I
Ideological clarification is an essential step to anticipate dilemmas
contradictions arising from current ideologies underpinning the
promotion of Maya in Yucatan. A tool to reach some kind of consensus?
People interested in promoting Maya must be aware of the limitations
of revitalising a minoritised language through the formal education
system; of the secondary role of literacy as a social practice as
compared to orality; and of the interest laden use of Maya culture
revalorisation as an institutional discursive strategy.
The aim of language revitalisation is to project the language into the
future rather than idealising a “pre-contact” past.
To take advantage of alternative domains of use (information
technologies, social media and artistic expressions) which are
attractive to young people.
Conclusions II
Grassroots organisation (both face-to-face and virtual) is crucial to
plan horizontal tactics. Top down policies are usually hierarchical
paternalistic, and based on a tolerance approach. Coordination around
revitalisation tactics is much needed, particulary in the framework of
a corporativist nation-state.
It is important to strike a balance between language legitimation and
institutionalisation and language essentialisation.
Language minoritisation is often a consequence of marginalisation and
subordination stemming from sociopolitical and economic processes.
Therefore, language revitalisation must go hand in hand with broader
cultural, social, political and economic changes if it is to be
successful.
http://vimeo.com/38869130
Hip hop hits the Maya Highlands
http://lenguasindigenas.mx/index.php
Acervo lenguas indígenas
Dios bo'otik / Níib óolal