Prestige, Preference, and Preservation: Language Policies for Nahuatl and Guarani, from Empire to Nation
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The Spanish colonization of the Americas has ultimately created a situation where no indigenous language is favored. In this thesis, I provide a comparative history of the language policies governing two indigenous languages, Nahuatl and Guarani, from the colonial period to the present. These languages were chosen because of their historic and demographic significance; Nahuatl was the language of the Aztec Empire and Guarani still remains the majority language of Paraguay. While much has been written about both languages, their histories have not been compared. My research was purely bibliographical. I consulted primary and secondary sources in English, Spanish, Nahuatl and Guarani; the thesis is a synthesis of these various histories, historical documents, and laws. My research has shown that Nahuatl and Guarani were subjected to similar policies, even after the independence of Mexico and Paraguay. In fact, Guarani’s policies were even less tolerant than Mexico’s at certain points in history. However, Nahuatl and Guarani’s policies were not always intolerant. Bans on both languages were lifted, relaxed, and overlooked by those in power many times when these languages were useful in gaining popular appeal. Even in times of official intolerance, there were impracticalities in enforcing such policies, depending on the situation of each country. Therefore, policy alone cannot account for the current disparity between each language’s vitality. Understanding the history of each language can allow us to identify the key actions for reversing language shift.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | [ca. October 5, 2021 - July 29, 2022] |
| Publication date | November 16, 2022; August 1, 2022 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Wang, Harvey |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor | Solano-Flores, Guillermo |
Subjects
| Subject | Language policy |
|---|---|
| Subject | Mexico |
| Subject | Paraguay |
| Subject | Indigenous peoples > Languages |
| Subject | Nahuatl language |
| Subject | Guarani language |
| Genre | Text |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND).
Preferred citation
- Preferred citation
- Wang, H. (2022). Prestige, Preference, and Preservation: Language Policies for Nahuatl and Guarani, from Empire to Nation. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/sn462jj7776
Collection
Stanford University, Center for Latin American Studies, Masters Degree Thesis
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