Language ideologies and the linguistic ecology of Huehuetla Totonac: Reconceptualizing language vitality

• Author / Creator

  McGraw, Rachel IL

• This dissertation examines language ideologies and the linguistic ecology in the community of Huehuetla, Puebla, Mexico, where Huehuetla Totonac is spoken. I examine how language ideologies (beliefs about language) and characteristics of the linguistic ecology (context) are related to the language vitality (strength) of Huehuetla Totonac. The study shows that the current theoretical understanding of language vitality does not adequately account for how the people of Huehuetla talk about, view, and use their languages in daily life, as seen in the ethnographic analysis of language ideologies and the linguistic ecology of the community. While the traditional theoretical concept of language vitality is weighted towards intergenerational transmission, speaker numbers, and structural factors such as institutional support (e.g. Fishman 2001; Lee and Van Way 2016; Lewis and Simons 2016; UNESCO Ad Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages 2003), my study shows that language ideologies are central to language vitality and how people define their relationships with their language(s) and with each other.

  To explore these ideological mechanisms, I examine discursive evidence including communicative practices and people’s beliefs about these practices and those who use them. People’s perspectives on how and why they use Totonac and Spanish informs the understanding of their relationships with their languages and how their languages are meaningful to them. My study examines two main types of language ideologies in Huehuetla—essentialist ideologies and syncretic ideologies—which interact and intersect, creating a complex language ideological assemblage (Kroskrity 2018). Treating languages and identities as naturally discrete and bounded, and equating language and identity are kinds of essentialist ideologies (Phillips 2010: 53; Silverstein 2003: 202). Through essentialist ideologies, speaking Huehuetla Totonac is equated with being Indigenous, and speaking Spanish is equated with being mestizo, or non-Indigenous. Syncretic language ideologies merge an ideological opposition between languages and social categories (Kuryłowicz 1964: 40 cited in Hill and Hill 1986: 57; Hill 1999: 244–45). Unlike essentialist ideologies, syncretic ideologies are not built on the assumption that language and identity categories are discrete or exclusive, instead they position identity and language as contextual and dynamic processes and performances. In Huehuetla, a syncretic ideology of community solidarity is evident in how people talk about their languages and identities with respect, and in their dynamic multilingual practices. Despite the factors in the linguistic ecology that work to undermine and potentially endanger people’s Totonac language practices, Totonac continues to be spoken and valued in Huehuetla, and I show that syncretic language ideologies are central to this vitality.

  The main finding that syncretic ideologies underlie the vitality of Huehuetla Totonac would likely be overlooked using existing assessments of language vitality that are primarily defined around speaker numbers and degree of intergenerational transmission. These conceptualizations that have been recognized by scholars, notably linguistic anthropologists, as overlooking the social life of language in people’s daily lives (e.g. Dobrin, Austin, and Nathan 2009; England 2002; Gal and Irvine 1995; Hill 2002; Moore, Pietikainen, and Blommaert 2010; Whaley 2011). The current study therefore makes an important contribution to the literature by informing the theorization of language vitality as centred on the ideologies of the people who speak the language, want to speak it, or support its use. My approach also combines the analysis of language ideologies with the framework of linguistic ecology. Using ethnography and discourse analysis I explore how language ideologies are related to specific contexts in the linguistic ecology, building off the linguistic ecological approaches taken in some studies of multilingual education and language policy and planning (e.g. Blackledge 2008; Hornberger 2002; Mühlhäusler 2000). The finding show that not only are language ideologies and the linguistic ecology interconnected, but that language ideologies are foundational in (re)constructing the linguistic ecology and are thus evidenced in the linguistic ecology itself. This supports my reconceptualization of language vitality because I show that language ecological factors that have been identified in existing theories of language vitality, such as institutional support, are also affected by underlying ideologies.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • language vitality
  • Huehuetla Totonac
  • syncretism
  • language ideologies
  • linguistic ecology

• Graduation date

  Spring 2024

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-xp5k-3q09

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.