For Module 9, I thought it would be
interesting to talk about Multilingualism and how it relates directly to us in
our everyday lives. I will also talk about how Multilingualism has taken a role
in Paraguay. We don’t all experience multilingualism, mostly because it isn’t
always necessary, but I thought of a few places you can look to see how
multilingualism is being used in the U.S. The first one that comes to mind:
safety labels. This is a clearly functional multilingualism. In this case, it
means that English is the main language (the L1) and Spanish would be a
language strictly used to communicate important information (the L2). Again,
this is the kind of multilingualism that you might not experience, but if you
look, you will find that it is used in many places. In fact, the first two
cleaning supplies that I grabbed from my closet both had safety labels with warnings in Spanish. You may not notice it because you don’t need to, but I am almost
certain you can find the use of multilingualism right inside your home. Here is the one I found in my house:
It may be hard to see, but there are safety warnings in English and Spanish.
Another place you might find the use of multilingualism is in
instruction manuals. Instruction manuals often have English, Spanish, French,
and sometimes more languages. Now, you won’t find this in every instruction
manual or on every safety label, but I’m willing to bet that if you take a look
at a couple, you’ll find this to be true.
Another fascinating look at
multilingualism comes from the country of Paraguay. An important distinction to
take note of between multilingualism in Paraguay and in the U.S., is that
Paraguay is much closer to ambilingualism. This means that in Paraguay, both Guaraní and Spanish are L1 languages. According
to a New York Times article, “Paraguay remains the only country in the Americas
where a majority of the population speaks one indigenous language: Guaraní” (Romero, 2012). Amazingly, only 5% of the
population of Paraguay is Guaraní,
yet 90% of the population speak it (Romero, 2012). In Paraguay, there the
primary languages are Guaraní and
Spanish. Spanish and English likely have a different relationship in Paraguay
than English and Spanish have in the U.S., but it is still interesting to see the
effects it has on a country. For example, there is a “Spanglish” version of Guaraní and Spanish, which is called Jopara. Jopara
is used by most Paraguayans, even if just a little (Bowen & Bowen, 2014). Unfortunately,
I can’t go into a Paraguayans house and see if their product labeling use
multiple languages, but one thing that is definite, is the affect it has on how
they speak (or in what language).
References
Bowen, A. & Bowen, L. (2014) Guarani-Jopara Institute for
Missionaries in Paraguay. World Gospel Mission, Inc.
Romero, Simon. 2012. An Indigenous Language With Unique Staying Power. The
New York Times.
I have never really thought of languages in other countries being blended together as in Spanglish. That's really interesting that very few people are Guarani in Paraguay, yet so many speak the language. I wonder why this is? Maybe there was a time that a majority of the population was indigenous and once Spanish introduced itself in Paraguay they had no choice but to learn the indigenous language? Typically once the Spanish or English colonized a region, they forced the native people to speak their language so it seemed unlikely that they were forced to speak an indigenous language. I wonder if the colonization of Paraguay was more civil? Great post, made me think.
ReplyDeleteI think it's fascinating and very inspiring that an indigenous language is an L1 for 90% of the people in Paraguay. We all could probably learn a lot from studying how that came to be.
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