Transforming Sociolinguistic Hierarchy on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
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MIKI MAKIHARA Linguistic Syncretism and Language Ideologies: Transforming Sociolinguistic Hierarchy on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) ABSTRACT Recent work in linguistic anthropology highlights the role of linguistic ideologies, or cultural conceptions of language, in transforming social relations and linguistic structure and use. This article examines the links between language attitudes and uses in their institutional and interactional contexts on Rapa Nui, a Polynesian island community that is part of the Chilean nation-state. By the 1970s, a sociolinguistic hierarchy and functional compartmentalization of languages between Spanish and Rapa Nui—what I will describe as “colonial diglossia”—had become established in the community, which was rapidly becoming bilingual. Language shift toward Spanish has continued to advance since then. However, rising Rapa Nui syncretic language practice and consciousness, combined with the political successes of a local indigenous movement and changes in the local economy, are now contributing to the breakdown of colonial diglossia, generating better conditions for the maintenance of the Rapa Nui language. [Keywords: language ideology, language maintenance, language shift, bilingualism, ethnolinguistic minority] N RAPA NUI, as in many other ethnolinguistic mi- its “authorized and recognized” users (Bourdieu 1991) exert Onority communities such as those where Mexicano, authority in both formal institutional settings and in ev- Maori, Hawaiian, Occitan, and Dyirbal were spoken, colo- eryday interactions between minority and dominant group nial languages and, later, state languages were imposed from members. Unequal power relations influence not only lan- above by politically and economically dominant groups. guage choices in particular interactions but also the evalu- State-sponsored institutions, such as the formal education ation of language varieties and, by extension, their users. I system and politico-administrative offices, disseminate the propose to label this kind of sociolinguistic hierarchy colo- state language and, in some cases, act to suppress minor- nial diglossia to emphasize its political and economic origins ity language(s). After Chile annexed the remote Polynesian and the diglossia-like functional compartmentalization of island of Rapa Nui in 1888, it promoted cultural and lin- language varieties. guistic assimilation gradually over the first half of the 20th Charles Ferguson (1959) used the concept of “diglos- century, leading the community on a path of language shift sia” to describe a sociolinguistic arrangement in which va- toward Spanish. This process became greatly accelerated rieties of the same language are functionally differentiated after the mid-1960s arrival of a large Chilean civil admin- in a single speech community, in which a High variety is istration and the opening of regular air passenger travel to used for most written and formal spoken purposes and a the island. The habitual monolingual use of Rapa Nui came Low variety for ordinary conversation. He discussed four to be replaced by increasing use of Spanish and new syn- cases: Greece (classical and colloquial Greek), Switzerland cretic Rapa Nui speech styles, and more and more Rapa Nui (High German and Swiss German), Middle Eastern coun- children are growing up as native Spanish speakers. tries (classical and colloquial Arabic), and Haiti (French As colonial or postcolonial state governments integrate and Kreyol).` 1 The concept of “diglossia” has since been subject ethnolinguistic groups, the functions of languages extended to describe bilingualism among ethnolinguistic tend to become compartmentalized into institutionally groups, most notably by Joshua Fishman (1967) in his dis- based domains of use and a system of sociolinguistic dis- cussion of Guaran´ı-Spanish bilingualism in Paraguay (see tinctions typically develops that mirrors and reinforces so- also Eckert 1980; Jaffe 1999). Agreeing with Ferguson that cial hierarchies. State language use becomes privileged and diglossia is (or the combinatory effect of its characteristics American Anthropologist,Vol. 106, Issue 3, pp. 529–540, ISSN 0002-7294, online ISSN 1548-1433. C 2004 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. Send requests for permission to reprint to: Rights and Permissions, University of California Press, Journals Division, 2000 Center Street, Suite 303, Berkeley, CA 94704-1223. 530 American Anthropologist • Vol. 106, No. 3 • September 2004 makes it) a stable sociolinguistic arrangement,2 Fishman cretism is observable at all linguistic levels as Spanish and (1991) suggests that endangered minority language main- Rapa Nui accents, words, grammatical elements, phrases, tenance can benefit from functional compartmentalization and genres are mixed within and across speakers’ utter- in “diglossic bilingualism.” Penelope Eckert (1980), by con- ances, while remaining subject to systemic constraints of trast, argues that diglossic functional compartmentalization the sort discussed by Shana Poplack (1980) and Carol Myers- had the opposite effect of accelerating language shift toward Scotton (2002). Syncretism also describes the interactional French in Occitan communities (see also Kuter 1989). norm and “practical,” as opposed to “discursive” (Giddens Bonnie Urciuoli’s (1996) notions of “outer and inner 1984), consciousness of the language users who allow and spheres of interactions”—which refer respectively to inter- expect bilingual simultaneities and demonstrate great actions characterized by asymmetric or symmetric power accommodation toward speakers of varying bilingual relations—are useful in characterizing the ways in which competence and preference. As discussed below, although colonial or state languages penetrate into and transform syncretic Rapa Nui is linguistically similar to syncretic prac- ethnolinguistic minority communities under situations of tice in the Mexicano communities described by Jane Hill colonial diglossia. The state language first becomes elevated and Kenneth Hill (1986), its functions are quite differ- in status in the minority’s outer spheres of interaction, ent and this has shaped the dynamics of sociolinguistic which are primary sites for the reproduction of inequal- change. ity. The situation motivates the minorities to become bilin- The devaluation of their own identity and language by gual, although in such contexts linguistic markers of minor- minorities constitutes a major catalyst for language shift ity status—such as accents—become liabilities and reinforce (e.g., Kulick 1992). Pierre Bourdieu (1991) describes the sociolinguistic hierarchy. process of “symbolic domination” whereby the dominated Over time, the state language also tends to penetrate come to tacitly endorse the prestige of the state language. into inner spheres, contributing to language shift. Here, Yet, clearly, the reproduction of structural inequalities and two broadly different tendencies can be identified. In some language shift need not be uniform or automatic. Claims cases, the functional differentiation of the state and ethnic over resources can be contested and renegotiated, and not languages is maintained through bilinguals’ interlocutor- all language users equally recognize the authority of the based code choice patterns. As the intergenerational gap state language or the devaluation of the ethnic language in bilingual competence grows, the ethnic language is re- across all institutional and interactional contexts. Attitudes stricted to ever-smaller inner spheres. Examples include toward language differentiation and mixing can become Hungarian in Austria (Gal 1979); Corsican and Occitan a determining factor in different sociolinguistic develop- in France (Jaffe 1999; Eckert 1980); Arvan´ıtika in Greece ments. Shifts in “symbolic capital” (Bourdieu 1991) can be (Tsitsipis 1998); Gaelic in Scotland (Dorian 1981); and brought about that lead to the reorganization of the speech Dyirbal in Australia (Schmidt 1985). Language maintenance community’s communicative economies. among the Arizona Tewa appears to have benefited greatly Like nonlinguistic forms of tradition, “ways of speak- from the strong association between language and identity ing” (Hymes 1974), or speech “styles” (Irvine 2001), can be and ideological adherence to strict compartmentalization construed as cultural practices to be actively and selectively and purism despite over three centuries of multilingualism elaborated. In this process people use historically contin- (Kroskrity 1993, 1998). In recent years, however, economic gent and culturally bound categories and models to exploit incentives have led younger generations to shift identity new political, economic, and linguistic opportunities, in- and language, and the domains of Tewa use are becoming evitably and often unintentionally transforming these cat- increasingly restricted. egories and models.3 This article is my attempt to inter- In other cases, the minority develops and adopts syn- pret the recent sociolinguistic changes on Rapa Nui within cretic language practices in inner spheres where they be- a Rapa Nui history of resistances, accommodations, and come an index of new ethnic identity. Examples of this in- appropriations (Marcus and Fischer 1986:78). An “ethno- clude diaspora communities such as Puerto Ricans in the pragmatic” (Duranti 1994) analysis points to how, as their United States (Urciuoli 1996; Zentella 1997); Italians in island became more integrated into the larger world econ- Germany