State, agent of extinction

Abstract

In the following pages we will try to expose the situation of linguistic displacement in which the minority languages Tapiete and Guaraní find themselves in relation to Spanish. We will also try to delimit the role played by the State, since, in our opinion, it made possible and fostered the tension between high and low languages. On the other hand, we will problematize ideas such as the death of language as equivalent to the death of a culture, the relationship between politics and language, the role of the government in guaranteeing the preservation and transmission of languages, and the consequences of linguistic contact between dominant and dominated languages. To this end, we will first consider the relationship between language and culture, and then recover some notions such as mother tongue and national language, speech community, diglossia, contact and conflict, language policy and planning, glotopolitics and linguistic ideologies, which will allow us to deepen the analysis.