1
Diglossia and Language Shift in Bilingual
Paraguay:
The case of Encarnacion
Alba Belinda Casco Leguizamon
S2580322
MA in Applied Linguistics
Faculty of Liberal Arts
University of Groningen
Supervisors:
Dr. N. H. Hilton
30 June, 2014
2 0. Abstract
3
Table of Contents
CHAPTER1: INTRODUCTION ... 5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE BACKGROUND ... 8
2.1. Historical Background and Sociolinguistic Context of Paraguay ... 8
2.2. Diglossia and Language shift ... 13
2.3. Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theory and the Jopara ... 17
2.4. Encarnacion and its borderline situation ... 18
2.5. Language Vitality ... 20 2.6. Research Questions ... 21 CHAPTER 3: METODOLOGY ... 22 3.1. Subject ... 22 3.2. Materials ... 24 3.3. Procedures ... 25
3.4. Design and analyses ... 26
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS ... 28
4.1. Language choice in each situation analysis ... 28
4.1.1. Family Context: Quantitative Analysis ... 28
4.1.2. Family Context: Qualitative Analysis ... 28
4.1.3. Social Settings: Quantitative Analysis ... 29
4.1.4. Social Settings: Qualitative Analysis ... 30
4.1.5. Social Media: Quantitative Analysis ... 31
4.1.6. Social Media: Qualitative Analysis ... 31
4.1.7. Interactions with others: Quantitative Analysis ... 32
4
4.1.9. Reading news, watching TV, radios, listening to music: Quantitative Analysis ... 33
4.1.10. Reading news, watching TV, radios, listening to music: Qualitative Analysis ... 34
4.2. Analysis of the questionnaires ... 34
CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION ... 38
5.1. How vital is Guarani in Encarnacion ... 38
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION ... 46
REFERENCES ... 48
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CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
Rosenblat (1954) describes that there was a conservative estimate of thirteen million people who spoke more than one thousand languages in America before Christopher Columbus reached the island of Hispaniola in 1492. Tsunoda (2005) explains that in South America the amount of living languages is estimated to be only 500 nowadays. The colonization by European nations let to language loss in the area and in some cases this incursion even helped to exterminate or at least diminish aboriginal languages. Tsunoda (2005) also mentions that European languages spread all over the world and therefore the majority of the populations of Latin America are monolingual either in Spanish or Portuguese, although it is estimated that an important number of Amerindian languages are still spoken in the continent. In this group, the country with the richest multilingual diversity is Mexico, followed by Ecuador and Paraguay.
Paraguay is one the few countries in South America that has two official languages; Spanish and Guarani. Choi (2005) mentions Guarani as the original language spoken by the native inhabitants called “The Guarani tribe”. This language was named official language by the National Constitution 22 years ago and Paraguay was the first Latin-American country to proclaim an indigenous language as official and hence to gain a bilingual status. The geographical characteristics of Paraguay and its history account for the Spanish-Guarani coexistence. The sociopolitical linguistic aspect in Paraguay is both, “complex and unique”. Guarani language has not only survived for centuries, nearly 500 years; but also it was given a status of national language in 1967 but for legal purposes became an “official language” in 1992. Still, Paraguay is the only case in Latin America where most of their non- Indian populations speak an indigenous language as their mother tongue; moreover it must be taken under consideration that only 2% of its population is indigenous.
6 that bilingualism and bilingual education are national policies. Furthermore in the Article 77 of the Paraguayan’s Constitution stipulates that the teaching at the beginning of the schooling process is in the official mother tongue and its Article 140 recognizes Guarani and Spanish as official languages. As a consequence it is a reality that Guarani and Spanish have co-existed for many years in a diglossic condition. Ferguson (1959) explains the term of Diglossia as the compartmentalized use of two languages in different settings. Gomez (2008) mentions that the diglossic situation has been present in South America since the colonial times, hence diglossia prevails in America Latina between Spanish and Portuguese, too, in the time of the European colonization, and it is part of the sociopolitical structures because the knowledge of any of these languages helped the Amerindians to buy and sell their products and participate in their colonial society.
Concepts of multilingualism, bilingualism, language shift and diglossia are really important to understand this research because they reflect the main concept in consideration when two or more languages are in contact in the same area, as a result of the mixed of races, a situation that happens in Paraguay. Rubin (1968), Melia (1993), Hudson (1997), Ferguron (1959), Edwards (1994) Corvalan (1985, 1977), Romaine (1989) classify Paraguay as a diglossic linguistic community in which each language has a separate function in society, where Spanish language is categorized as a High variety because is prefer in formal setting and Guarani language is categorized as a Low variety because is used in social settings.
7 more deeply, because the main study will be focused on Guarani and Spanish languages individually.
Encarnacion is the capital of the Paraguayan department of Itapua. The city has an area of 558 km2 and a population of 93,497 (census 2002). Even though there is not a new Census made by the government some independent agencies believe that the population by 2014 could have reached approximately 120.000 inhabitants. Encarnacion is connected to the Argentinian city of Posadas by San Roque Gonzales de Santa Cruz Bridge and it is 370 km away from Asuncion (the capital of the country). The city is visited by many tourists (especially from Argentina). Tourists come to the commercial area where they find low prices in some articles in an area called “zona comercial” which is located near the International Bridged that connects both countries. Therefore an interaction between citizens from both sides is constantly present, many Argentinian citizens live, come to work or do business in Encarnacion so an interaction between languages always occurs.
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CHAPTER 2. BACKGROUND LITERATURE
2.1. Historical Background and Sociolinguistic Context Paraguay
As Dietrich (2002) mentions The Guarani language is spoken by many people in South America, all over Paraguay, the North of Argentina (in the provinces of Corrientes, Misiones, Formosa, Chaco and the North of Santa Fe) and the South of Brazil (in the states do Matto Grosso do Sul and Parana). In this area of South America we find a particular linguistic setting where a majority of the non-indigenous population speak an indigenous language, and in Paraguay the social and historical status of the vast use of Guarani language as a means of communication have created a state of Diglossia. Fishman (1967) describes Paraguay as a case of diglossic bilingualism, where the use of the both languages depends on the social context.
9 the Spanish for nearly 500 years. Melia (1992) proclaims that Franciscans and Jesuits were responsible for the documentation and standardization of the language. The current linguistic pattern of the Guarani spoken nowadays is due to the mestizos from the colonial society who naturally spoke the language and the Spaniards who learnt the language due to the closed contact with the mestizos and Indians.
Figure 1. Paraguay’s location in the world
10 Paraguay (Figure 2) Northern Argentina and Southern Brazil. As Villagra-Batoux (2002) mentions that this native language was used for everything in the reductions (communication, teaching, religion and literary work) and the Christian missionaries approach to Guarani language was a major linguistic bulwark in the use of Guarani rather than Spanish. Melia (1998) explains that the missionaries in their effort to standardize the language created a written form of Guarani providing them with a phonological spelling, grammars, dictionaries and material for religious indoctrination. Choi (2003) reveals that the first Guarani dictionary was printed by Spanish Jesuits in 1624. By the year 1978 most of the Indians from the reductions went back to the wilderness after the missions were dissolved by the Spanish Crown because they believed that this system was creating an autonomous regimen from Spain.
Figure 2. Maps of Jesuitic Reductions in South America
11 independence from Spain in 1811; whose administration isolated the country for nearly 26 years by closing the borders (between the years 1814 until 1840). This isolation promoted the Guarani and the country’s autonomy from others, as a result of his hidden agenda of total control of the new Independent Paraguay as a means to secure his dictatorship. Even though Francia himself used Guarani for all administrative and political issues, he ordered that education at schools all over the country had to be done in Spanish. Villagra-Bataux (2002) describes how the next Dictator Carlos Antonio Lopez’s language policies towards the language as detractor of Guarani were influential in the language. He reinstated Spanish as official language because he considered it essential for the country’s development in the modern culture and gave a barbaric connotation to the Guarani use. Rubin (1968) in his research reports about how nationalism in the time of warfare that Paraguay suffered fighting for its territory (The Triple Alliance 1865-1870 and Chaco War 1932-1935), the Guarani language was strengthened by its people. Engelbrecht & Ortiz (1983) recount that the significance of the language was probed when, fellow citizens used Guarani language as a strategical tool to transmit secret information, that only Paraguayan could understand and it became a symbol of national identity. The language was used as a secret code and in folk music in the battlefield, trenches and in some written newspapers, poems and journals where they mocked the enemy’s skills.
12 Furthermore, Alfredo Stroessner who ruled between 1954 until 1989 considered the language a national symbol of unification and patriotism. Though the constitution of 1967 declared both languages (Spanish and Guarani) as co-national languages, only Spanish received the prestige of the official language and Guarani was discriminated from the administrative, judicial and commercial spheres. Corvalan (1989), Engelbrecht & Ortiz (1983), Gomez (2007), Pic-Guillard (2004) criticize Stroessner’s attempt of a program for oral instruction in Guarani in some rural areas with his 1973 program called “Programa de Educacion Bilingue” (Bilingual Education Program) which ended up being a program to Hispanicizing monolingual Guarani children, where the real intention was to quickly teach them Spanish in the first cycle of primary education. After the fall of Stroessner’s government in 1989 and the democratization of the country, a new era of communications, politics, culture and international business were presented to the people, in which Spanish was again the language of preference. At the same time and with the new Democracy in Paraguay, Guarani language was officially recognized as an official Language in Paraguay by the New National Constitution in 1992. The New Educational Reform of the same year required the teaching of both Guarani and Spanish at schools. Other laws, such as The
Bilingual Education Plan in 1994 and The General Education Law in 1998 made Guarani
establish its position firmly. The main goal of the Bilingual Education Plan is to “bilingualize” all of the Paraguayan population between 15 and 35 years old by 2020 and
The General Education Law assures that each student will receive education in their mother
tongue. Besides all the effort Gynan (1999) reports that the Ministers of Education of Paraguay recognized the absenteeism and illiteracy of students made these programs ineffective.
13 important than Guarani. The existence of two languages where one of them is more privileged than the other can be better understood in the lens of Diglossia. Gynan (2001) recounts how recent census data confirms previous studies (such a Rubin 1968, Sole 1991 and others) which Guarani-Spanish bilingualism is higher in urban and border areas, whereas Guarani monolingualism is limited to rural areas.
2.2. Diglossia and Language Shift
The concept of Diglossia is first introduced by Ferguson (1959) who uses the term to describe a bilingual situation where two varieties of linguistic systems coexist in the same community and the speakers choose to use them depending of different conditions. The language choice depends of the contexts, for example if they are in a family setting or with some friends they use a local dialect, contrary to when they are in a more formal setting where they prefer to use a standard language to communicate with others speakers. To illustrate the phenomenon he uses the case of the Arabic-speaking word, Greece, German speaking Switzerland, Tamil, Latin in pre-modern Europe and Classical Chinese in pre-modern China where the existence of a pattern of societal multilingualism is demonstrated. Paraguayans bilingual speakers, as in any others communities with more than one language, have a repertoire of speech alternatives which may shift depending on the situation. In everyday scenario Paraguayan speakers have to choose between Guarani and Spanish to communicate with their pairs and several factors can influence in the moment to make that choice, including the geographic location where this communication is taking place, the number of people present, the formality of the situation, the content or function of interactions, the language proficiency of the participants in the interaction, the age, the degree of intimacy among the speakers, etc.
14 used in official domains such as public administration, schooling, mass media and commerce while the other language, with the lower prestige or low variety (L) is used within family, social and cultural activities in the community. Even though there are a lot of studies about diglossia in societal bilingual, Ferguson (1991) himself notes that there is not a completely homogenous situation in all the cases where two or more languages co-exist, and that each case has specific characteristics to be taken in consideration because previous studies in this field failed to adopt a comparative or typological approach to the study of diglossia. Therefore it is easy to find common patterns at the moment of making a decision on what language to use and those similarities are influenced by common socio historical circumstances. The choice of the language in Paraguay is influenced by the relationships of the linguistic form and the structure of the linguistic repertoires because even though many people speak Guarani fluently, they find themselves more eloquent in Spanish.
15 informal (like communication with family and friends), the language choosen was Guarani, but if the situation was formal (like student-teacher or doctor-patient interaction), the language choosen was Spanish. Her study depicts the diglossic reality in Paraguay.
In addition to everything previously said, Rubin (1973) identifies four major factors that influence the language choice in Paraguay; she divided them into variables or dimension like:
a) A geographical factor that distinguished rural, where they mainly speak Guarani from urban area, where the Spanish is the language of preference.
b) A formality factor, where she specified that Spanish is associated with a formal factor and Guarani with the informal one.
c) A degree of intimacy factor where Guarani is related with more intimacy and Spanish with less intimacy
d) A degree of solemnity factor or seriousness of speech event, where humorous speech is associated with Guarani and seriousness is associated with Spanish.
Socanth (2005) studied the rural area of Domingo Savio, where it is typically assumed that most of the inhabitants are monolingual Guarani speakers and his aim for the study is to determine consistencies and differences in linguistic usage and attitude comparing his results to with Rubin (1968) first studies. Socanth (2005) results shows that bilingualism boots especially in that area influenced by the media (especially Mexican telenovelas or Soup Operas on TV) and reports that more than 79 % of the students are capable of self-expression in both languages. However, after more than forty decades since Rubin did her first study about Paraguay’s bilingualism, the urban researcher Choi (2003) finds in Asuncion (the capital of the country) only 1, 5 % of the students are bilinguals and the majorities are monolinguals Spanish speakers and therefore she arrives to the conclusion that “Guarani is losing ground”.
16 years of schooling. But Socanth (2005) explains that children in rural areas acquire the language before going to school in leisure activities (music and television in Spanish); this shows an earlier incursion of the language in that Spanish and it is no longer learned exclusively in formal education like in Rubin’s time.
Choi (2005) did a longitudinal study from 2000 to 2001 where she compared her data with Rubin’ results (using the same original location Luque and Itapuami as Rubin in 1968), she suggests that Spanish is dominant in administrative and educational settings. Therefore, she concludes Paraguayans are showing preference for Spanish, not only in formal setting, also in a familiar and informal setting as well, despite the advancement of Guarani. Gynan (2005) analyzes the shift between the use and attitude of Guarani and Spanish in a longitudinal research from 1995 to 2001, where he observes that Paraguayans developed more positive attitudes towards Guarani after its officialization in 1992 and the implementation of the of Guarani Spanish bilingual education in 1994. However, Garcia (2005) showed that Paraguayans prefer Spanish to Guarani because of socioeconomic reasons and that diglossia seems to be present at all society levels. Garcia concluded this after a study of 27 families, where parents follow diglossic theories in favor of Spanish over Guarani and diglossia seems to be common for the majority of those parents.
May (2008) proclaims that Guarani has not become institutionalized, despite the government legitimization; Spanish is still predominantly used in documents and textbooks and Guarani does not have an official domain as Spanish, therefore is not easy to find official documents and administrative paperwork written in Guarani. Globalization and Urbanization play an important role in Paraguay especially with the usage of the Guarani. Fishman (1972) claims that language shift is a result of urbanization, where he implies that the traditional language (or Low variety) can eventually replace the higher variety language in a bilingual society, and language maintenance will depend on the nationalist ideologies of its population. The term language shift is a process where one language is replaced by another, and it is expected that the language replaced will eventually die, this has not happened because the history of the country has helped to maintain the language alive.
17 sociolinguistic point of view, the case of Paraguay is completely different from other countries where two languages are present at the same time and place. Guarani is spoken in the cities and in the countryside equally reducing language shift to the minimum. And therefore Rubin (1973) suggested that societal bilingualism can be approached but not completely accomplished. This concept of unfinished bilingualism is shared by Melia (1973) who also suggests that it was not possible to master both languages equally, especially because the existence of a third language (Jopara), a linguistic result of the mix of the two languages that co-existed.
2.3. Second language acquisition (SLA) theory and the Jopara
Ruiz (1984) and Brisk (2006) mention the misconceptions in bilingual education and how bilingual education is often associated with a problem rather than an advantage, using the example of Spanish-English bilingual education in the United States. Brisk (2006), Tse (1999), Wiley (2005) mention that immigrants in the United States do not teach their children their mother tongue and prefer to use English with them as an effort to positively influence their language acquisition of the main language (English). Benson (2002), Brisk (2006), Buhmann & Trudell (2008), Cumming (2009), He (2012), Trudell (2012) claim that SLA theory enhancing academic performance recommends the usage of mother tongue as a language of instruction. Gynan (2005) states that in the mid-1990s in Paraguay, Cumming (2003) bilingual theory in support in one’s native language of education became popular but it got diminished because of the fear of educator that it will not be beneficial for the students.
18 language in strict terms. Tipically some linguists discriminate Jopara as colloquial Guarani and Guaraniete as the real language use in books. The concept of Jopara also appears in the Paraguayan educative reform which was prepared by the Paraguayan Ministry of Education (MEC 2004) as a variety that uses non-integrated forms of both languages, in a lexical borrowing of phonology and morphosyntax Guarani and Spanish forms. The inclusion of Jopara in this literature background is because it is a linguistic variety that is present in the Paraguayan linguistic reality but for this thesis it will not be further developed.
2.4. Encarnacion and its borderline situation.
.
Figure 4. The district of Encarnacion.
19 especially regarding the younger generations, due to the fact that there are more Argentinian TV stations, radios and the media in general that use Spanish as means of communication; the same situation happens in Ciudad del Este, a Paraguayan city located in the East of the country and which has borders with Brazil, where Portuguese is spoken by many Paraguayans for similar reasons.
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2.5. Language Vitality
Many languages around the world are currently endangered and the linguistic communities are facing their language loss and there is an effort to revitalize them to keep them alive. A healthy language can be used in different domains such a formal, informal, official or at home. Grenoble (2006) describes that language endangerment includes language contact situations; he gives the example of two (or more) languages in use around the same area, where one language (Language A) replaces another (Language B). Researches and linguists that are particularly concerned about language loss are doing different analysis in multilingual’ communities, some of them use the Ad Hoc Expert Group by the UNESCO (2003) study which identifies 9 factors to consider in the moment of determining the degree of vitality or endangerment of a language in an effort to develop measures for its maintenance or revitalization:
1) Intergenerational language transmission: one of the most important factors in order to remain healthy is that a language must be spoken by children or future generations.
2) Absolute number of speakers: the more speakers the more likely the community will resist the language shift.
3) Proportion of speakers within the total population: a large percentage of speakers and an active usage of the language will maintain its vitality.
4) Shift in domains of language use: the differences in usage of each language and the Diglossia situation is taken in consideration when the setting is the factor that influences the language shift.
5) Response to new domains and media: when a language is used in a new domain. Media helps to upgrade the language use and maintenance.
6) Availability of materials for language education and literacy: the existence, creation of new material in the target language and the use of materials for education can help to embrace its vitality.
7) Governmental and institutional language attitudes and policies official status and use: Supportive policies, laws and positive language attitudes directly influence the speakers overall attitude toward the language.
21 9) Amount and quality of documentation: in order to keep the language vitality the
existence of documentation and project for revitalization must exist.
All these factors have to be considered together so it can allow languages communities, linguistics and educators to determinate the language vulnerabilities and take some safeguarding measures. The community has an important role in strengthen the language vitality; this role can require actions and commitment to keep it alive. It is really important that studies about the language vitality and use be done in all the problematic areas such as Encarnacion, hence the aims of the present study attempts to answer a question about the behavior and language use of people from Encarnacion (Paraguay), taking under consideration that the country is officially bilingual and the particular linguistic situation that all the citizens face because of the proximity to the Argentinian city of Posadas that could influence the use of Guarani in the individuals that live in the area.
2.6. Research Question
After analyzing previous studies regarding Paraguayan bilingualism, the diglossic situation, the language vitality and the people’s positive or negative attitude towards the choice of language (Guarani and Spanish language), this thesis focuses on the following research questions to improve the understanding of the characteristics of the language co-existence in the city of Encarnacion.
1. Which languages do people from Encarnacion use the most in different situations?
The domains that this question aims to search are: language choice in the family, educational, social settings; uses of language in social media, communication, and language choice in the city and abroad.
2. What are people’s motivations for the different language choice?
The motivational domains aim to study if the decision was made because of a personal or professional motivation, optional or forced selection.
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CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY
In order to answer the research questions, data form questionnaires with multiple choice questions were collected. This survey focuses on how to retrieve the necessary information from each citizen in the city, who can help to comprehend the language usage and the motivation in different settings such as interacting with their family, friends, social setting and others. Taking under consideration that Encarnacion, as a border city, experiences a particular linguistics interaction due to the influence that it might bear for the exposition to Spanish language from Argentina. These materials were designed to encourage the participants to complete them honestly, therefore at the beginning of the survey, we explain clearly the reasons why this research is being done and how their answer can help to clarify doubts that linguists and teachers from the country conceive; the survey was anonymous; it was made in an everyday Spanish language, easy enough for everyone to understand.
3.1. Subjects
23 was 2%. The data also show that 68 % of the individuals are single, 28% are married and the rest divorced or widow. The survey also shows that 56% of the individual do not have children and 44% of the interviewees have between one until five children, this data are important for the research because for the study purposes the language that these parents use with their children can influence the vitality of the language and its survival over the years. The appendix section contains all the data available from the participants.
From the total informants, a 45% of the participants in this project have lived abroad and had to use another language in those countries (Argentina, United States, Spain, Brazil, Portugal, and Poland); in the group there is a 55.6% of participants who used Guarani to communicate with their pairs outside Paraguay. The social status and education level are important questions for this research because it is known that people with higher social standard tend not to use Guarani language as their means of communications, compared to lower social class citizens; therefore we aim to obtain information from a variety of individuals and thus there are, among the participants, some University educated and also some school dropouts. The professions of the individuals include teachers, lawyers, accountants, students, housewives, maids, hairdressers, electricians, employees, amongst others which were a representative example of the citizens from Encarnacion (for more details in the appendix section is a chart of the participants’ professions). In Table 1 the age cohort and the education level that the individuals had access to and the percentages between male and female educational situation we show.
Age cohort Men Women Total University educated Non-university educated University educated Non-university educated 16-20 5 3 4 3 15 21-30 10 5 14 3 32 31-40 4 3 2 2 11 41-50 1 1 4 2 8 51-60 0 1 4 2 7 61-70 0 1 0 0 1 71-80 0 1 0 0 1 Sub Total 20 15 28 12 75 Percentages 27% 20% 37% 16% 100%
24 The individual’s proficiency in Guarani of the participant is taken in consideration because this information could lead to help to figure out what language the participants feel more comfortable using. This domain is a subjective impression of their own Guarani language proficiency especially because there is not a Language proficiency test available for that matter, after analyzing their answer the data collected show (Figure 5) each individual’s proficiency in speaking, reading and writing. The educational system of Paraguay stipulates the teaching of Guarani as a subject in the last three years during High School years. MEC (2002) affirms that the Guarani education aims to develop the student’s communicative competence in the language thus in this research the results show that many of the participants have a basic formal instruction from the school in the Guarani language, beside the acquisition that the interaction with their family provides.
Figure 5 Proficiency in the Guarani language
3.2. Materials
The set of 5 pages questionnaires was delivered by email to some individuals and others were personally interviewed by the assistant in Encarnacion. The survey was written and completed in Spanish, because there are indications that most of the people speak Spanish in the area, obviously I am aware on the facts that this may be biased in favor of Spanish but on the other hand, if I made the question only in Guarani I would potentially
Reading N=75 Writing N=75 Speaking N=75
25 exclude somebody; but I decided to use the question about whether they would want to fill the questionnaires in Guarani so the participant could express their opinion and feelings about this matter.
The first part of the questionnaire is a page where each participant completes their personal information such as gender, age, civil status, education level, professions, number of children, among other personal questions, data which help socially separate population in sub groups later on, in the result and analysis of the information it is crucial for the conclusion of the study. The second part is a battery of multiples choice questions in which the respondents specify the use of the Guarani language in their everyday life, the survey contains multiple choice questions, similar with a Likert scale, but especially made for this survey, with five levels, where they have to mark only one box their language use, the scale varies between the ranges like:
1. Always Guarani 2. Mostly Guarani
3. 50% of Guarani and 50% of Spanish 4. Mostly Spanish
5. Always Spanish
And the third part of the survey contains more specific questions of the Guarani’ usage of each person, in this section a series of open questions is formulated so the participant can answer the question regarding their specific individual situation where they have to choose one language or the other. The last page is an individual evaluation of their Guarani proficiency (Reading, Speaking and Writing). The questionnaires in English and Spanish can be found in the appendix section. Under each multiple choice question there is a commentary section where the participants are able to write some commentaries about the question or explain their answers, see appendix section for it.
3.3. Procedures
26 sent to people from Facebook and a personal contact list, but only 32 answered back in this group. From the personal interviewed approach, 43 questionnaires were completed by the assistant in the city of Encarnacion (Paraguay). The assistant aided some of the participants to complete the pages, especially for those who were at their workplace at the moment of the interview or some who did not have the sufficient proficiency to complete it quickly or the proficiency to do the task. Gather all the information for this thesis was not easy, although the questionnaires only take 10 minutes to complete, some participants especially from the email approach group took a long time to forward they answers for many reasons, some of them as they later explain it to me was because they did not have time, other because they did not have internet connection at home, other went on Easter Holidays abroad, etc. this fact can explain why only 32% of the emails were forward for this research.
3.4. Design and analyses
The data was coded in Excel according to the answer sheet sent by the assistant (by photo on Facebook messenger) and emails from the other group of participants, where the results from questionnaire and the multiple choice charts were analyzed quantitatively. A quantitative analysis of the open question section was also performed where the participant expressed some specific details in each question, see Appendix section.
27 Always Guarani Mostly Guarani 50/50 Always Spanish Always Spanish Number of People Mother 14 8 20 12 19 73 Father 12 8 19 8 17 64 Brother/sister 7 6 21 11 24 69 Son/Daughter 1 1 7 13 11 33 Husband/wife 4 3 8 8 7 30 Co-workers 1 6 23 23 16 69 Friends 3 2 31 22 14 72 People on street 2 4 22 26 19 73 Boyfriend/girlfriend 0 1 6 19 16 42 At work 0 1 22 24 19 66 At school/university 0 0 10 43 24 77 At the park 2 2 22 30 14 70 On the beach 1 0 21 31 18 71 At the disco 0 1 11 24 31 67 At the restaurant 0 0 8 29 31 68 Cellphone 0 0 10 32 31 73 On Facebook 0 0 11 31 41 83 On WhatsApp 0 0 10 35 32 77 Formal Letters 0 0 4 5 58 67 Official Documents 0 0 3 7 64 74 Music 0 1 24 23 27 75 News 0 0 23 25 27 75 T.V. 0 0 16 25 32 73 Radios 0 0 16 27 30 73 Serious conversation 1 1 12 22 51 87 Making jokes 11 14 33 9 8 75
Mad with somebody 11 14 33 9 8 75
Sad with somebody 1 5 19 26 24 75
Total 71 78 465 599 713 1926
Percentages of total 3.7% 4.1% 24% 31.1% 37.1%
28
CHAPTER 4. RESULTS
4.1. Languages choice in each situation.
The language selection in each situation is determined through quantitative and quantitative analysis of the results of data collection. A total of 75 participants completed the questionnaires. In the first section of the survey, all participants needed to complete some personal information which contains important facts about themselves that can help to locate them in certain groups (such as educated or non-educated, married or single, etc.) These data are important for the research because they show that participant’s behavior could be influenced in the moment of choosing Guarani or Spanish, if they belong to one group or another. In the section of appendix is the complete survey (in English and Spanish). It is important to add to these results that the participant’s proficiency in other languages was asked and the following languages are also mentioned: Spanish (75 participants), Guarani (60), English (19), Portuguese (9), French (3), Ukrainian (1) and Italian (2).
4.1.1 Family context: Quantitative Analysis
The section about Language use with the family shows interesting results as seen in Figure 6. The number of family members (N=75) varied from the original 75 surveys because some participants did not have that family member, but it is specified under each column the number of N. The first and second column shows the language choice with the mother and father, it is pretty similar to each other with a 19% of Always Guarani Speakers and 12% and 11% of Mostly Guarani speakers. The data display an important growth in the usage of Spanish over the Guarani with the parents; but it also shows that the use of Guarani with the siblings, children and spouses is very poor. There are only 33 (44%) participants with children in this survey. There are also only 30 (less than 40%) currently married participants which prefer to Spanish over a really low numbers of Guarani.
4.1.2. Family Context: Qualitative Analysis
29 communication with their parents, the results also show that many use half of the time Guarani and half of the time Spanish, only parents who were born in Paraguay do not use Guarani in their household. The participants comment in this section that most of them are bilingual at home, speaking Guarani language among the older members of the family (mother, father, grandparents, etc.) and Spanish to the new generations. Some of the answers given are in the Appendix section.
Figure 6. Percentage of language usage in a family setting
4.1.3. Social setting: Quantitative analysis.
The language choice in the social setting like co-workers, friends, people in general and in other public setting around the city shows a visible preference of Spanish language in almost all the columns. Guarani is barely present in this setting but still is. People associate seriousness with Spanish as a clear indication of the diglossic situation in the country. The percentages of each group are show in the Figure 7. This survey shows that 69 participants are currently working and they choose to use Spanish most of the time with their colleagues. Figure 7 clearly shows that the present of Guarani in a work-related-space is almost nonexistent, with a 2% of Always Guarani users, 9% of Mostly Guarani and a bigger 33% who speaks half of the time in Guarani and half of the time in Spanish.
19 19 10 3 13 11 12 9 3 10 28 30 30 21 27 16 12 16 40 27 26 27 35 33 23
30 Between friends it is normal to have a 43% of (50/50) which means half of the time one language or the other, the rest of the bigger percentages is for Spanish usage living Guarani usage only with a 7% usage, a similar situation occurs with the communication with people on the street, where more less than 8% use Guarani. The communications within the 42 participants who are in a relationship at the moment when the survey took place (boyfriend or girlfriend) also prefer to use Spanish rather that Guarani. The rest of the columns show similar data giving a majority of participant selection of Spanish over Guarani.
4.1.4. Social setting: Qualitative analysis.
The participants explain that they feel more comfortable using Spanish over Guarani, because it is their mother tongue. Also some of them are afraid of discrimination from their peers so they adapt themselves to the situation and choose to speak the language that most of them do in a social setting that is Spanish. One comment shows that she does not want to be called names because of her use of Guarani in social setting, such as work or public places. A common name that people use to discriminate is Guazo/guaza which means uneducated, some participants wrote that they use Guarani among friends when they are making jokes or trying to be funny. The appendix section contains some answers from the open questions.
Figure 7. Percentages of language use in different social settings
31
4.1.5. Social Media: Quantitative analysis.
The next section of the survey is aimed to show the language usage in social media and in official documents like contracts, government letters and others. The language of preference at the moment of using a cellphone for texting or calling is Spanish with more that 86% of the participant, leaving a 14% of users who chose 50/50 (half Guarani/Spanish) and there are not participants with Guarani usage only. Even though the use of Facebook and WhatsApp in Paraguay has an important growth with the globalization and the access to new technology, especially with the younger generations there are still a number of participants who did not have Facebook or did not have access to a smartphone to use WhatsApp, beside the fact that internet connection is really expensive in Paraguay, hence not all the participants have full access to it. In the Figure 8 is obviously clear that the usage of Spanish surpasses the Guarani language use in the entire new technology related item. Even though Paraguay is a bilingual country, official documents at Universities, Schools, States office and governmental spaces still are in Spanish so it is not a surprise to find the choice of Spanish as a predominant as it shows in the columns about formal letters with a 86% and 67% of the official documents column of Always Spanish.
4.1.6. Social Media: Qualitative analysis.
32 Figure 8. Percentages in language choice in social media and formal documents
4.1.7. Interaction with others: Quantitative analysis.
The next battery of multiple choice questions aim the interaction with others in having conversations and expressing their feelings. Most of the 80 % of participants chose Always or Mostly Spanish in the serious conversation in the intent to be taken seriously but on the contrary, a bigger percent of Guarani is chosen in the moment of making jokes . The same as when they are mad with somebody they express themselves better in Guarani than Spanish which represent only 22% of their choice in that moment. But again when they are sad or are trying to express their feelings Spanish is chosen by more than 65% of the individual as it shown in the Figure 9.
Cell-phone N=73 On facebook N=62 On WhatsApp N= 60 Formal Letter N=64 Official Documents N=74 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 14 13 17 6 32 44 37 43 8 31 42 50 40 86 36
33 Figure 9. Percentages of language choice when interacting with others.
4.1.8. Interaction with others: Qualitative analysis.
The explanation about usage in the language choice was that Guarani makes more sense when a jokes is being told, therefore they use the language to make jokes. The language choice still depends on how serious is the conversation and the intimacy level of the speakers.
4.1.9. Reading news, watching TV, radios, listening to music: Quantitative analysis.
In the next section the participants answer about which language they prefer to use while listening to music, watching the new, the T.V. and radios. As it shown in the Figure 10, Spanish again is the language of preference. Even though the ages of the participants varied, they all prefer to use Spanish and some Guarani, but not exclusively as the other language. It is a fact that Guarani does not show in this figure as a result of the survey to the participant with 0% in all the columns.
Serious Conversation N=75 Making Jokes N=75 Mad with somebody N=75 Sad with somebody N=75 1 15 15 1 2 19 19 7 16 44 44 25 30 12 12 35 51 10 10 32
34
4.1.10. Reading news, watching TV, radios, listening to music: Qualitative analysis.
Some of the interviewees in the commentary section wrote that they use internet or international radios and in those media Guarani is not present, hence they do not listen to it. Most of the young generations prefer even English over Spanish, leaving only to the older generation listening folk music and news in Spanish.
Figure 10. Percentages of language prefer when listening to news and music.
4.2. Analysis of the questionnaires.
In the written questionnaires section the participants were asked to complete some questions about the uses of the language in some specific situation that they were exposed to. One of the main questions was which language they were comfortable using and why. Figure 11 shows that Spanish is the language of choice of 55 participants (75%) for reasons such as “it is the language that everyone speaks”, “I feel more comfortable using it” or “it is my mother tongue”. Also 12 participants were more comfortable using Guarani because it is their mother tongue, they liked it or because the people around them communicate with it and it was easier to learn it and use it. And 8 participants used both languages mixed together in the same sentence (Jopara), some of them wrote than their proficiency in Guarani is not good enough and they have completed the sentences with
Music N=75 News N=75 T.V. N=72 Radio N=73
0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 32 31 22 22 31 33 34 37 36 36 44 41
35 Spanish, so for a better understanding they start the sentence in Guarani and complete it with Spanish. For more answers to this question go to appendix section.
Figure 11. Reasons why they choose to use each language.
Another important question for this research was if they had lived abroad and what language they had used they had had that experience. The answers show that 45% of the participants lived sometime of their life outside of the country and as it shown in Figure 11 Spanish again was the language of choice, but some Guarani was also present with a mix of Spanish. The data also show that the preference of choosing Guarani to communicate with fellow Paraguayan was because of some privacy issues (nobody else understood it) and homesick factors. Depending on where they were living they use a mix of languages between Guarani and the countries language, such as English with Guarani, or Portuguese with Guarani, or Spanish with Guarani; in a constant merged because of the lack of proficiency. Guarani N=12 Spanish N=55 Both N=8 44 21 58 6 16 42 13
Language that I use Everybody speak it It is my mother tongue Not explanation why
36 Figure 11. Percentages of languages choice from the 45% of participants who lived abroad.
Another question was if they sometime in their life had travelled or done business in Posadas (Argentina). Many explain that they travelled frequently to work, others went to do shopping, or to sell their goods, etc. and they also wrote that they only used Spanish because in Argentina nobody speaks Guarani or at least do not want to do it. Some also said that in Argentina they do not accept neither Paraguayan currency nor its language, and everyone has to adapt to that situation.
The next question was intented to gather information about if the participants were forced to use Spanish over Guarani at any moment and if they can describe when. The results show that 52% of them were in some moment of their life forced to use Spanish over Guarani because many reasons. The explanation that most of them gave was that they visit Argentina or interact with Argentinian people who do not speak that language or the people around do not know the language. This answer is really important for this research and it will be more develop in the next chapter. Others also describe that working in Paraguay they are forced to use Spanish over Guarani because they work with tourists that do not speak Guarani, so in order to sell their goods they need to speak a language that the potential buyer can understand. Some participants also mentioned that sometime they do
37 not speak Guarani when it is known that somebody in the group do not know the language as a mean of respect to them.
38
CHAPTER 5. DISCUSSION
5.1 How vital Guarani is in Encarnacion.
Guarani is a constant in everyday conversations all over Encarnacion nowadays. However, as a result from this survey it is hard not to worry about how long the new generations of citizens will keep using the language as older generations have done till now. It has to be taken in consideration that Guarani language is losing speakers (especially among children) and that Spanish language is replacing it in many aspects of life. So the question that arises as how vital is Guarani is in Encarnacion. Linguistics considers that a language is endangered when it is being used by fewer speakers and in fewer domains or situations, therefore this thesis aims to have a specific look into the particular situation that people from this city deal with. The results that this survey shows are trying to give a better look into the language choice that people from this city make at the moment of communicating with others and their motivations. As many writers describe at the beginning of the history of Paraguay, the isolation of the country was one of the main reasons for the survival of Guarani language, as Gynan (2007) explains, the geographic features of the land and the approach that many European settlers gave to the language were also an important impulse for the language survival. Nowadays, because of the globalization and the new the technologies available, especially the access to internet that people from the whole country have, there is an exposition to more languages than before, resulting in a variety of languages choices. Encarnacion, as a border city, is exposed to a factor that a few cities in Paraguay experience, derives from the proximity with Argentina’s monolingual society resulting into the speakers’ language choice a direct result from the daily interactions with their citizens in many aspects of our lives, and how this influence is increasing the linguistic diversity, new costumes and language choice of people from Encarnacion.
39 and according to these results it is clear that the level of intimacy plays an important role. It is clear that 100 % of the participants know and use Spanish language on daily basis while interacting, this is a result of the fact that education instruction (which most of the Paraguayan receive) is in Spanish, as the Ministry of Education stipulates in its regulations and as Lopez (2009) mentions, the place that Spanish has as the language of instruction in the educational system despite the fact that Paraguay is considered bilingual in a linguistic sphere; in this research beside Guarani and Spanish, the knowledge of other languages also comes up in the results . This randomly selected group of participants shows that 80% of them speak Guarani; this data has a similitude with Gynan’s (2001, 2005) surveys in which he describes that 87% of the population in Paraguay speaks the native language. Therefore taking in consideration the second factor from (UNESCO (2003) called Absolute number of speakers, the Guarani usage in Paraguay is considered very high with more than 80% of speakers, although there is also a small group which does not speak Guarani for different reasons such a Ukrainian descendant who was born and raised in that European Country and immigrated to the Paraguay and has never learnt Guarani; some Brazilian descendants who are bilingual in Spanish-Portuguese and never learnt Guarani, a Uruguayan family which finds really hard to learn the language and also some Argentinian citizens that do not want to learn the language. But some of these participants from other countries with children at school age are aware that their children have Guarani as a subject at school, but they do not encourage its learning at home, these foreign parents mention also that their children use Jopara with their Paraguayan friends. Hence the factor number 3 from the UNESCO (2003) that mentions the proportion of speakers within the total population is also taken in consideration because there are currently a lot of individuals, at different level using the language.
40 informs, teachers and parents privilege Spanish over Guarani; and from the results in the results in the questionnaires it is easy to see that the same situation is happening in Encarnacion among the new generations. This fact is not new; studies done by other researches such Brisk (2006), Tse (1999), Wiley (2005) also show this discrimination in the case of immigrants in United States, where they do not teach their children their mother tongue and prefer to use English with them in an effort to positively influence and in Encarnacion it is happening the same situation, parents do not teach them Guarani to avoid interference, confusion, misspellings, etc. with Spanish.
As Fishman (1967, 1971) and Hudson (2002) predict in their researches, the diglossic situation of Paraguay, where the H level is Spanish and L level Guarani as it is shown in Encarnacion after the results of this survey were available. The data show that citizens from this city tend to place Spanish as a high standard level, leaving Guarani to be used with friends and not in formal settings. So a language shift in different domains of the language use is present in Encarnacion as the factor number 4 of the UNESCO (2003) stipulates. Despite the participant’s patriotism, which is constantly present in the commentary section, the reality is that as Caballero (2008), Hauck (2009), Ito (2010) and Mortimer (2006) all mention that the people’s patriotism does not matter in the moment of labelling the importance of mastering Spanish and leaving Guarani aside. The reason behind this is as follows, they do it because they are looking forward to securing the children’s future, and mastering Spanish can allow them to live a more comfortable life with better jobs and career opportunities, also some parents assume Guarani cannot guarantee (especially because it is only spoken inside the country). The data about the language use of spouses show that only 40% are married and they also tend to use Spanish over Guarani for communication between each other, but the age and the setting where this conversation takes place play a role in the use of Guarani, because generally speaking old couple use Guarani at home when they are by themselves and young couple do not speak it as they explain in the comment section.
41 Spanish because their customers do not speak Guarani or others (especially low budged jobs) like foremen, stonemasons, mechanics, shops employees are force to express themselves in Guarani so their employee can understand their commands (mainly because Guarani is their mother tongue). In the office settings, banks, governmental offices and more formal places the language of choice is Spanish. The reason can be described as Choi (2005) reports, she writes that Spanish is dominant in administrative and educational setting and the results in this survey endorse that. In this survey 92% of the participants are currently working and it shows that they do not use Guarani, they use Spanish and this language shift can be as result of the urbanization, as Fishman (1972) implies that the traditional language (or Low variety) can be replaced eventually for the higher variety language: Spanish in this case. The language of preference among friends and in any social setting where interaction is required is still predominantly Spanish, with this data it is easy to rely on Garcia (2005) when she mentions that diglossia is present in all society levels in Paraguay and on Choi (2003) when she says that Guarani is losing ground. It is also important to mention that many of the participants explain the reason for the motivation to pick any between these languages in this survey is also related to the place where this communication is taking place, for example as Rubin (1973) says, a geographical factor, this is rural or urban area, a formality factor, a degree of intimacy between companions, a degree of seriousness, all play a really important role at the moment the participant has to choose a language.
42 other. As a result of this, students who speak Guarani as their mother tongue develop a poor Spanish performance. The numbers of this survey in this section show an enormous preference of Spanish over Guarani, as a result of the lack of support from the authorities. Therefore this survey results show that the amount and quality of documentations that is suggested in the factor number 9 and the availability of materials for the language education and literacy as suggested in factor number 6 of the UNESCO (2003) are examples of the failure of the government approach to the problem of Guarani survival, because the availability of these materials is necessary to maintain vitality and revitalize the language.
Besides the lack of material in Guarani language, parents are so concerned about the fact that, although they speak Guarani, they choose to teach Spanish to their children even before school so the adaptability to the school and society will be easier. Centurion (2004) mentions in his studies that parents believe that Guarani learning can be detrimental for Spanish acquisition and they do not want to put their children in disadvantage over others. Socanth (2005) also reveals that parents in rural areas introduce their children to Spanish before school, even though they are Guarani speakers, so the children will adapt easily to the outside world; hence Spanish learning is not correlated to the school education as many years ago, shown in Rubin (1978) studies in rural areas, where she ensures that schools are responsible for the growth of Spanish. An important factor is that even though Encarnacion is a semi-urban area, the city has many characteristics similar to those in an urban area, but the schools and cities around are still considered as in a rural area, especially when talking about urbanization, education system, economy, etc.; all this added to the fact of the constant migration of people from the rural areas looking for business, study, work opportunities, etc. and therefore the language diversity, the interaction with Guarani monolinguals, bilingual and people who do not know the language is a constant fact in the life of each citizen from Encarnacion.
43 cellphones, WhatsApp and Facebook is mostly use Spanish, but when the intimacy levels of the companion allow it, Guarani can be use, too. The factor number 5 from the UNESCO (2003) which says “response to the new domains and media” is being taken care in Paraguay, big corporations such a Facebook, Google, Mozilla Firefox and Wikipedia, in this past year added Guarani as language choice in social media giving to the language a recognition that many Paraguayan are proud of. Facebook officially launched the Guarani language interface in December of 2013 with the help of the Secretary of Linguistics Policies of Paraguay, with the objective of connect a country with 6.9 million inhabitants. Also Wikipedia launched in the year 2007 the interface “Vikipeta” with the help of the Atheneo of Language and Guarani Culture. The Mercosur (Southern Common Market), (similar to the European Union, an economic and political agreement among Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela and Bolivia) had named Guarani language an official language along Spanish and Portuguese as recognition to its many speakers. Although the survey results clearly show the preference is for Spanish over Guarani. The acceptation that Guarani language has received in some domain increases the people’ pride over the language that is an important aspect to the language survival as the factor number 8 for the UNESCO (2003) proclaims. This acceptation of Guarani over the media helps to spread the language use and its maintenance because gives language’s prestige before a dominant Spanish language.
44 language called the Jopara that is a mix of both language and that many Paraguayans use in the daily communication.
This research also asks the participants which language they feel more comfortable using and 74% of them say that they prefer Spanish because it is their language of instruction at school, the language that they learn first and with which they communicate for every aspect of their life in the city. The rest is divided between people who prefer Guarani or to mix Guarani/Spanish. Some of them living abroad get closer to the Guarani language; some explain that primarily they use the native language to communicate with other Paraguayan as a symbol of their patriotism as in the history of Paraguay. Engelbrecht & Ortiz (1983) mention about the significance of the language in time of war, as strategic tool to transmit secret information that only Paraguayan understood, some of the participant mention that they use Guarani looking for privacy when living abroad. Some also mention that they used it mixed with the language originally spoken in foreign country as a means to complete the idea because of the lack of vocabulary.
45 follow some easy programs that do not help to master the language but also the lack of materials and Guarani teachers with enough proficiency to teach students the language. Consequently the proficiency of the participant in this survey in both languages is not equal.
46
CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSION
This analysis about the language choice of people in Encarnacion in all aspects or their life proves that even though Paraguayan laws are inclined to preserve the Guarani language as a bilingual country, the reality is that Guarani is losing ground as Choi (2003) writes in her research. Over 500 years Guarani has been part of country’s history and its survival has impressed many linguists and critics, until the point of being name official language 22 years ago. But the patriotism and the national pride of having an indigenous language with an official status do not guarantee its vitality. The efforts that many educational institutions, language communities and governmental fractions are making to preserve the language usage and prevent its endangerment need meaningful measures to avoid the language loss.
47 choice, always associating Guarani as an informal setting and Spanish as a formal setting, examples of the diglossic situation that different societies face when they live in a place where two languages co-exists, such as in Paraguay.
48
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