| Description |
Individuals who grow up speaking an indigenous language in Peru, have historically struggled between maintaining their native mother tongue as a means of constructing their identity and connecting to their cultural heritage; versus, being pressured to linguistically shift to Spanish, as this language dominates most of the linguistic spheres of the country. The current constitution indicates that the official languages of the country are Spanish, Quechua, Aymara and other indigenous languages in the areas where they predominate. Nevertheless, this declaration of intention by the government has not done enough to reverse the language shift and loss of the indigenous languages of Peru. The objective of this study is to investigate the diglossic relationship between Spanish and Quechua, one of the major indigenous language families of Peru. Examining the diglossic situation between Spanish and Quechua languages provides us with the opportunity to understand how these languages with diverse statuses coexist in a shared space. Additionally, this study also seeks to be beneficial and informative in the future development of language revitalization and maintenance initiatives. The diglossic case study of Spanish and Quechua languages conducted in this piece utilizes Joshua Fishman's latter modified definition of diglossia as a foundation; additionally, the following diglossic characteristics delineated by Charles Ferguson will also be discussed: prestige, function, stability, acquisition, standardization & literary heritage. |
