On language regimes in the Americas: Mexicano illustrations

Abstract

AbstractIn this article several heteroglossic expressions of language regimes will be presented. To this end, I will succinctly discuss a series of (socio) linguistic issues related to the use of one of the major Indigenous languages in Mexico – namely, Mexicano (Nahuatl) – in its political, ideological and pragmatic arenas. This includes a consideration of Mexicano political economies, entailing a dispute over the politics of representation of Mexicano verbal culture in different ambits in which language plays an outstanding role. Comparing different linguistic politics of interpretation will allow an understanding of antagonistic voices regarding competing (e.g., ethnographic, linguistic) approaches, including different linguists’ and anthropologists’ descriptions vis-à-vis varying actors’ contradictory perspectives on the same or similar facts. These will encompass political, ideological and pragmatic uses and ideologies, in both historical and contemporary domains, including the written and oral worlds.