Abstract
This chapter describes the process of language shift in detail. Following Giles et al.’s (Language, Ethnicity, and Intergroup Relations. Academic Press, London, pp. 307–348, 1977) conceptual framework of ethnolinguistic vitality, it shows that this particular ecology marginalized the English language on all levels of society, which ultimately brought about its disappearance. In Nueva Australia, the English language faced challenges, such as low prestige and lack of institutionalization, which quickly marginalized its use, while in the Cosme community, the instrumental value of English on the job market proved decisive for the further development of the community because it triggered out-migration. The remainder of the chapter focuses on New Australia, where ethnic identity has shifted from being determined by primordial markers, such as ethnic origin and language, to socially acquired markers, such as status and property. The last part proposes that the linguistic allegiance of Guarani speakers to their language contributes to the weakening of other languages in this setting.
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Notes
- 1.
A number of letters by Julian Franck are part of the James Feehan collection.
- 2.
The Cosme community similarly translated names into their Spanish counterparts, such as Don Guillermo instead of William or Don Carlos instead of Charles (Souter 1991: 156).
- 3.
Connelly and Souter (1991: 236) disagree on this point. The latter holds that the revolution in 1921 induced the Bishop to withdraw the Church of England schoolteacher without substituting him afterwards.
- 4.
According to Sonia de Smith, the distribution of languages in the schools of the district is generally as follows:
-
1st grade: 35% Guarani—65% Spanish
-
2nd to 6th grade: 50% Guarani—50% Spanish
-
- 5.
Stereotypes are no longer considered to be a cognitive deficiency in terms of false or prejudiced beliefs (cf. Brubaker 2004: 72).
- 6.
In accordance with this approach, some of the settlers were in a dilemma regarding the consumption of monkey meat. Souter (1991: 111) mentions that the monkey stew, which for most tasted like chicken stew, remained untouched by women (persons who have eaten monkey meat affirm that it is somewhat reminiscent of a child). This may explain why the Cosme Evening Notes made a clear semantic distinction between “shooting a bird” and “murdering a monkey.” Also, the consumption of monkey meat was frequently subject to analysis, such as “Harry Taylor brought home two monkeys today. Their relatives devoured the corpses tonight,” or “‘[h]ow like my poor dear grandmother,’ sobbed Peter Pindar as the hunting department emptied its game bag last Friday on the galley floor.” On another occasion, it reported that “monkey, whether it be the low class lemur or the most intelligent of the apes, is indeed a dish fit for a Cannib– I mean a king. Never shall a Cosme colonist be able to say that he owes nothing to his ancestors but the bare fact of his being. […] The hand, by the way, shares with the liver the honour of being tidbits of the animal” (Souter 1991: 152).
- 7.
For the sake of completeness, I add the motives of the junta (consisting of the British consul and a number of colonizers) here: Connelly (1924: 13) reports that the junta granted the application for an allotment on which Paraguayans lived: “That they [the Junta] did it in defen[s]e of the Paraguayan is only a cam[o]uflage used to blur their real motives. The real motive was 1st opp[o]sition to the colony, 2nd to be look upon by the Paraguayans as their champion.” This suggests that the orientation of in-group members were shifting from the Anglo-Paraguayan community towards the local population.
- 8.
The same word was used in Cosme (Whitehead 1997: 440).
- 9.
The reputation of their feet’s odor, however, seems to persist. I regularly observed men putting their feet into ashes after taking off their boots in order to avoid the scent.
- 10.
Her reaction was so vehement that I avoided asking any further questions concerning family names.
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Perez, D. (2019). Language Shift in New Australia. In: Language Competition and Shift in New Australia, Paraguay. Palgrave Studies in Minority Languages and Communities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24989-2_6
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