Nahuatl in the Huasteca Hidalguense : a case study in the sociology of language

[摘要] This thesis examines the vitality of Hidalgo Nahuatl (HN) in thecommunities of Jaltocan, Panacaxtlan, Santa Cruz, Santa Teresaand Zohuala in the Huasteca Hidalguense, Mexico.The research, conducted in Mexico and St. Andrews Universityfrom 1976-1982, applies an analysis of HN within the framework ofthe Sociology of Language and Dependency Theory, thereby using amulti-disciplinary approach. Through an investigation of the historical,social, cultural and economic factors related to HN, thelatter is embedded in its reality.HN is shown to be originally a language of dependency and oppression,supported by a long mestizo tradition of "caciquismo". It isdemonstrated that an increasing number of Spanish (S) monolinguals,together with other socio-economic factors, is encouraging Nahuasto bilingualize and S:: =A. is fast becoming the new language of dependency.The Hidalgo Nahuas possess practical reasons for the acquisitionof S., these being to solve their daily problems - especiallyland tenancy -, to communicate with the mestizo out-group and toundertake trading with non-HN speakers. However, the Nahuas arenot surrendering their native language as they bilingualize, butrather, tend to limit its usage to native Nahua contexts and speakers.HN has become important to the Nahuas in order to demonstratetheir ethnic identity and territoriality.The introduction of government projects to the communities, such asthe Castellanizacion project or bilingual-bicultural education, areshown to be theoretically bilingual in approach, but fail to takeinto account sufficiently the regional Indian language in the praxis.The stable maintenance of HN is highlighted by statistical resultsfrom the word-count of recorded texts, documents and publicationsand the range of morphological phenomena affecting S. wordsin HN is described with examples from the Corpus.The linguistic interference from S. in HN is located within DependencyTheory and this author suggests the use of the term dependencyword rather than loan word and dependency language, thus implying a diachronic sociological process which is reflected in HN.Extended Texts are offered as evidence of the linguistic standardof HN and attitudes of Nahuas towards their language are presented.The final conclusion is that modern HN is a viable, vital andfunctional language at the time of undertaking this research anddemonstrates a frequent usage by a large number of speakers. HNhas still not entered into:. -avital process of language death, asis the case in other Nahuatl-speaking regions of Mexico, and isstill being maintained, particularly at community level, by adultsand children alike.

[发布机构] University:The University of St Andrews;Department:Research Centres and Institutes