«Yo creo que sí hay. Lo único es que no lo sé»: política lingüística mexicana y su percepción en Yucatán

Abstract

This article deals with the language situation in the Yucatec peninsula in southern Mexico. As Mexico can be considered a highly heterogeneous country with an extraordinary cultural and linguistic diversity, language policy has always been a complex challenge for the Mexican government. During the last twenty years, there have been significant legal changes and adaptations in order to protect and to revive Mexican indigenous languages. In this contribution, we concentrate on some impacts of the national language policy in the Yucatec context and present some exemplary results of a qualitative analysis based on interviews with Maya and non-Maya speakers in Mérida, Yucatán. What do they know and think about the Mexican governments’ initiatives? Are there any visible changes concerning the functions, the prestige and the perception the interviewees have of the languages spoken in Yucatán and of their speakers? We conclude this article with a few closing remarks at the speakers’ prediction concerning the vitality of Yucatec Maya and the interviewees’ needs and suggestions for a successful and sustainable revitalization.