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Linguistic Natures: Method, Media, and Language Reclamation in the Ecuadorian Amazon
Author(s) -
Ennis Georgia
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of linguistic anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.463
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1548-1395
pISSN - 1055-1360
DOI - 10.1111/jola.12281
Subject(s) - grassroots , language revitalization , sociology , personhood , standard language , active listening , amazon rainforest , variety (cybernetics) , ideology , linguistics , political science , epistemology , politics , communication , computer science , philosophy , ecology , indigenous , artificial intelligence , law , biology
In Napo, Ecuador, many speakers experience the use of the standardized variety Kichwa Unificado in formal education and other forms of institutional language revitalization to be a serious imposition upon their regional varieties of Kichwa. This article explores the assumptions about the nature of language—or what have been called ontologies of language (Hauck and Heurich 2018; Ferguson 2019)—that shape responses to language revitalization in Napo. At stake in debates over language standardization are fundamental assumptions of the nature of language and its connection to personhood. Grassroots Amazonian Kichwa media focused on “listening” and “remembering,” reveal the importance of not only ideological clarification (Kroskrity 2009), but also ontological clarification in language revitalization and advocacy.