Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


Dissertation (Pinta).pdf (57.61 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Minority Language Resilience in Corrientes, Argentina: Argentine Guarani and Spanish in Contact

Pinta, Justin
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2422-1871
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1658243431760415

Abstract Details

2022, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Spanish and Portuguese.
The Argentine province of Corrientes has long been a site of intense language contact. There Spanish is spoken alongside Argentine Guarani, a historically and linguistically distinct variety of Guarani which has been maintained to the present day despite centuries of ideological hostility. Via data collected from fieldwork in Corrientes from 2017-2020 and analyzed within the framework of grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss 1967; Bernard 2006), I provide analyses of language ideologies, language use, and language transmission in the province of Corrientes, with specific focus on the rural interior where bilingualism in Spanish and Argentine Guarani is widespread. The combination of historical attempts of the Argentine national government to curtail Guarani’s use and hostile ideologies toward cultural ties to indigeneity, stemming culturally and legislatively from Buenos Aires, has created a complex sociolinguistic situation which is reflected in who speaks what language to whom and when, the high degree of mixture between the two languages, the social value assigned to contact features, and complex transmission patterns for both languages. An analysis of the language ideologies surrounding Argentine Guarani shows that pervasive negative ideologies co-exist alongside language maintenance, contrary to the more common ideology-practice paradox in which speakers of minority languages hold positive language ideologies while shifting to the majority language. Positive ideologies linking Guarani to local cultural aspects are also present and, in some regions, on the rise in the wake of recent legal recognition of the language at the provincial level. Patterns of language use resemble those described in other minority language contexts; Spanish is the language of school, of church, of ceremonies, and of institutions generally, and Guarani is the language of the home, of jokes, of gossip, and of intimacy. Such diglossic patterns have created an affective connection between speakers and Guarani, something reflected in the social value of Argentine Guarani contact features in Correntino Spanish. Analysis of a unique corpus of Correntino Spanish internet memes illuminates the link between Guarani-origin loanwords and Correntino culture and identity. Guarani loans in Correntino Spanish are shown to have undergone enregisterment (Agha 2003), i.e. they are used and understood by speakers in ways which link them to a web of Correntino cultural characteristics and “Correntinoness” generally. Finally, such connections between ideology, affect, language use, and institutional forces manifest themselves in varying patterns of language transmission. While the theme of the past century has largely been one of language shift away from Argentine Guarani, resulting in the loss of the language in population centers, the isolated rural regions have been characterized by maintenance to the present day, evidenced by the geographically varied reports of school children learning Spanish as a second language in large numbers. The vitality of the language can be accounted for via approaches to language attitudes which privilege affective bonds between speaker and language and which treat such bonds as separate, albeit related to, ideological stances.
Anna Babel (Advisor)
Don Winford (Committee Member)
Cynthia Clopper (Committee Member)
Holly Nibert (Committee Member)
206 p.
Language; Latin American Studies; Linguistics; Sociolinguistics
Guarani; Spanish; Corrientes; Argentina; language contact; language maintenance and shift; minority language resilience; language ideologies; language policy; sociolinguistics; anthropological linguistics

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Pinta, J. (2022). Minority Language Resilience in Corrientes, Argentina: Argentine Guarani and Spanish in Contact [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1658243431760415

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Pinta, Justin. Minority Language Resilience in Corrientes, Argentina: Argentine Guarani and Spanish in Contact. 2022. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1658243431760415.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Pinta, Justin. "Minority Language Resilience in Corrientes, Argentina: Argentine Guarani and Spanish in Contact." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2022. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1658243431760415

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1658243431760415
349
© 2022, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.