This presentation aims at analysing the discourses employed by six Atacamenean researchers regarding their efforts to revitalize the Kunza language of Alto El Loa. I seek to explore the discursive strategies they employ to legitimise their goal of revitalization, how they link their identity with their language, and the tense interaction they have with the Chilean government.
I have collected the data from six presentations given by the local researchers in the seminar ‘Awareness workshop for the revitalization of the Kunza language’ in December 2015. The aims of the workshop were to re-structure the linguistic academia of the Kunza language and to show the research carried out by its researchers.
Kunza is a native language which used to be spoken by the natives of the Atacama Desert in Chile. This community is called Lican Antai. Due to the Spanish colonization, they faced language shift and have become fluent speakers of Spanish. Even though there is 6,000 atacameneans today, Kunza is extinct since its last speaker has died and there are not fluent speakers left today. However, due to recordings, dictionaries and investigation, local researchers have been able to revitalise the language and promote it in their schools. These efforts evidence the motivation of the Lican Antai community to keep their identity alive through their native language.
I have employed critical discourse analysis to uncover the discursive strategies employed by the local researchers to legitimise their efforts to revitalise their native language. I draw on DHA (Reisigl and Wodak, 2009) and its analytical tools of legitimation (van Leeuwen, 1996, 2007) and argumentation (van Eemeren and Grootendorst, 2004; Walton, 2006) to analyse the data. The preliminary analysis has revealed political and linguistic ideological tensions among members of the native community and the Chilean government.
Finally, I construct knowledge about the struggle to revitalise the native language by drawing on previous work on the field (Berna, et al., 2003; Vilca, 2016; Segovia, 2016, Reyes Aymani, 2016; Varese, 1987). The findings of this research will contribute to the understanding of the Lican Antai community, their identity, language and the struggle to revitalize minority languages.
