The symbolic dimension of language in minority languages: the Tapiete case

Abstract

In this article we propose to review the research carried out in the Tapiete mission in Salta by Hirsch, González and Ciccone, published in 2006, in order to study the complexity of contact between linguistic communities and to delimit the mechanisms of power that operated in the different ideologies and linguistic representations of the Tapiete language in the eyes of its own speakers. Finally, we aim to discover the role played by sociolinguistics and current glotopolitics in reversing the diglossic processes tending towards language substitution or death. To this end, we will revisit the contributions of Fasold (1996), Boyer (2009), Guespin and Marcellesi (1986), Arnoux and Del Valle (2010), and Hamel (1988).