The Language Vitality of Nahuatl in Santiago Tlaxco, Mexico
Abstract
This thesis assesses the language vitality of Nahuatl (also known as Mexicano) in Santiago Tlaxco, a rural bilingual community in the municipality of Chiconcuautla, located in Puebla, Mexico, in the face of the growing trend of language endangerment for many Indigenous languages. It explores the linguistic use and attitudes of community members, and how they contribute to language maintenance and language shift of Nahuatl. The main research questions are: a) what are the language use patterns of the community? and b) what are the prevailing language attitudes of this Nahuatl-speaking community towards its Indigenous language? Data on the language practices with multiple interlocutors and linguistic attitudes were gathered by means of questionnaires, interviews and participant observation.
The results show that adults actively use Nahuatl in almost all linguistic domains, except in formal and unfamiliar domains where they prefer to use Spanish. Conversely, young people rarely use Nahuatl except with their grandparents. The factors favoring the language maintenance of Nahuatl are intergenerational transmission, cultural, ethnic and personal pride in the language, the isolated geographical location of Tlaxco, Nahuatl-speaking neighboring towns, bilingual education, and the presence of Nahuatl-speaking elders. In contrast, factors encouraging language shift are negative attitudes towards Nahuatl in mainstream society and by some community members, discrimination towards Nahuatl-speakers, absence of Nahuatl as medium of instruction, and the dominance of Spanish in Mexico.
These results indicate that more emphasis needs to be placed on the intergenerational transmission of Nahuatl to stem its declining use among young people. Additionally, the domains of Nahuatl need to be expanded and its home language use strengthened. The findings also provide a snapshot of a community at the early stage of language shift. This project is the first sociolinguistic study in Santiago Tlaxco and sets the foundation for future studies in the community. The factors favouring Nahuatl language maintenance-shift in Tlaxco also provide insights for other Indigenous communities facing language endangerment.