Amazonian Kichwa Proper: Ethnolinguistic Domain in Pan‐Indian Ecuador

Abstract

Pan‐Indian organizing and language standardization are key strategies for indigenous activists advancing cultural legitimacy in the contemporary Latin American sociopolitical order. Planned ethnolinguistic unification by Kichwa activists in Ecuador is paradoxically fueling ethnogenesis among Amazonian Kichwas who see language standardization as a threat to a uniquely indigenous identity that is manifest in local Kichwa dialect. This essay examines the accomplishment of this ongoing ethnogenesis through discourses of linguistic differentiation, suggesting (1) reconsideration of reactionary ethnolinguistic boundary‐drawing under the new Latin American indigenous order, and (2) renewed linguistic anthropological focus on dialects as political resources for objectifying and protecting vernacular identities. [ethnic identity, Kichwa language, dialect, Amazonia, Ecuador]

Inclusive higher education governance: managing stakeholders, strategy, structure and function

“…For example, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, 80% of indigenous people are Kitchwa, creating a very large and diverse nationality with notable sub-national distinctiveness. The Kichwa nationality is undergoing an ongoing process of ethnogenesis, driving the emergence of new group identities through fission, fusion, and redefinition (Haley and Wilcoxon 2005;Wroblewski 2012). The solution proposed by indigenous leaders, for the Consejo to equitably manage sub-national distinctions without degrading equitability between nationalities, was to allow one voice per nationality irrespective of size or heterogeneity.…”

Attaining Multicultural Citizenship through Indigenous‐Language Instruction: Successful Kichwa Misfires and the Modeling of Modernist Language Ideologies in Ecuador

“…Furthermore, though Ecuador offers a remarkable example of minoritized‐language recognition from a global perspective, the process has not promoted all Kichwa varieties and identities, allowing a closer look at the reconfiguring of Indigeneity in state institutions. Unified Kichwa, a variety that intellectuals and planners have promoted for pan‐Andean unity and activism, is widely disliked by Kichwa‐speakers in Ecuador (Wroblewski ). Based on a variety of Kichwa from the province of Imbabura, home to the well‐known and comparatively elite merchants of Otavalo, Unified Kichwa functions to maintain lexical purity through avoiding the use of Spanish loanwords.…”

“… My fieldnotes contain numerous examples of these commentaries, and Wroblewski () also describes similar reactions. …”

Public Indigeneity, Language Revitalization, and Intercultural Planning in a Native Amazonian Beauty Pageant

“…A common Kichwa‐fied Spanish borrowing like pagarachu (from Spanish pagar “to pay” + Kichwa intensifier morpheme – chu ), glossed as “thank you,” has been replaced by the more literal Unified Kichwa neologism yupaychani , meaning “I am grateful.” For Unified Kichwa supporters, such reconstructions “purify” Kichwa and ensure mutual intelligibility across regional dialects. According to critics, invented neologisms are evidence that Unified Kichwa is a stilted, pretentious, and foreign variety spoken only by linguists and their students, with no place in meaningful, everyday conversation (King ; Wroblewski ).…”

“…While Unified Kichwa is already a clearly enregistered written variety (Agha ), the broadly popular native beauty pageant helps normalize its use by inscribing new stereotypical speaker types. For many who have not been educated in Unified Kichwa and who oppose language standardization, preferring instead to protect local dialects, Unified Kichwa features have strongly negative associations such as elitism, detachment, extralocal orientation, and a pretentious persona (Wroblewski ). The beloved Amazonian princess is offered as a counterexample to the stereotyped stuffy, middle‐aged, professional Unified Kichwa user.…”