Why Spanish speakerers have the blues?
Les pays où l'espagnol est minoritaire
Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay live in a particular situation. Au Pérou , 47 % des Péruviens parlent l'espagnol alors que le reste de la population utilise l'une des 85 langues «indiennes» (dont l'aymara et le quechua). L'espagnol est minoritaire également en Bolivie (43 %) et au Paraguay (3 %). On compte une bonne quarantaine de langues «indiennes» en Bolivie (dont l'aymara et le quechua).
Enfin, dans deux pays, le Paraguay en Amérique du Sud et la Guinée équatoriale en Afrique, la quasi-totalité de la population emploie une autre langue que l'espagnol comme langue maternelle. Cette situation ressemble à celle de plusieurs États francophones ou anglophones d'Afrique: une infime minorité utilise la langue officielle comme langue maternelle. Au Paraguay, près de 97 % de la population parle le guarani. Selon le paragraphe 2 de l'article 140 de la Constitution paraguayenne (1992): «Ses langues officielles sont le castillan et le guarani.»
Quant à la Guinée équatoriale , coincée par le Cameroun et le Gabon (deux États de langue française), l'espagnol y demeure la langue officielle (avec le français), mais 75 % de la population parlent le fang et 25 % se partagent les sept autres langues de ce petit État de 410 000 habitants. Durant l'année 1998, le Parlement a adopté la Loi constitutionnelle portant modification de l'article 4 de la Loi fondamentale et établissant que «les langues officielles de la république de Guinée équatoriale sont l'espagnol et le français». Dans les faits, l'espagnol est la première langue officielle, le français, la seconde.
Countries where Spanish is a minority
Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay live in a particular situation. In Peru, 47% of Peruvians speak Spanish while the rest of the population uses one of 85 languages "Indian" (including the Aymara and Quechua). Spanish is also a minority in Bolivia (43%) and Paraguay (3%). Spanish is also a minority in Bolivia (43%) and Paraguay (3%). There are a good forty languages "Indian" in Bolivia (with Aymara and Quechua).
Finally, in two countries, Paraguay in South America and Equatorial Guinea in Africa, almost all of the population uses a language other than Spanish as their mother tongue. This situation resembles that of several states of Francophone and Anglophone Africa: a small minority use the official language as mother tongue. In Paraguay, about 97% of the population speaks Guarani. According to paragraph 2 of Article 140 of the Constitution of Paraguay (1992): "Its official languages are Castilian and Guarani."
As for Equatorial Guinea, squeezed between Cameroon and Gabon (two French-speaking states), including the Spanish remains the official language (with French), but 75% of the population speaks the blood and 25% share seven other languages of this small country of 410 000 inhabitants. During 1998, Parliament adopted the Constitutional Act Amending Article 4 of the Basic Law and stating that "the official languages of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea are Spanish and French. In fact, Spanish is the first official language, French, second.
http://www.tlfq.ulaval.ca/axl/Langues/2vital_inter_espagnol.htm
Paraguaigua noñe'êkuaáiva guarani pytaguarôguáicha hetâme
May 1, 2001
"A Paraguayan who can't speak Guaraní," opines this proverb, "is like a foreigner in his own land." In fact, between 90% and 95% of Paraguay's 5 million inhabitants speak Guaraní (pronounced "wa-ra-NEE," with a guttural rasp on the "wa"). That makes this indigenous language not just Paraguay's dominant language (by comparison, only 75% of Paraguayans speak Spanish), but also the only First Nations language on the planet to enjoy majority-language status, as well as the only one spoken on a large scale by non-aboriginals. (About half of Guaraní speakers are of European descent.) Finally, Guaraní earns Paraguay membership in that most restricted of clubs, the Officially Bilingual Nations of the Americas, a distinction it shares only with Canada and Haïti.
Victory in conquest
At contact, Guaraní cultures dominated northern Argentina, eastern Bolivia, and southern Brazil and Paraguay. In fact, after Arawakan, Guaraní may have been the most geographically widespread language in Latin America. But unlike every other native people in the Americas, the Guaraní managed to remain influential in Paraguay even after Spanish conquest. So influential were they in fact that the newcomers found they had to learn the local language to get by. Modern Paraguayans call Guaraní ñe'engatú ("dear speech"), or abá ñe'é ("common man's speech"). Traditionally relegated to a vernacular role in Paraguayan society, until recently Guaraní was not taught in schools or used in formal contexts in spite of its superior demographics. Today, thanks to a growing Paraguayan identity movement, it is poised to assume more substantial responsibilities in Paraguay and in the world.
The term "Guaraní" actually refers to a group of dialects of the Andean-Equatorial language family. (In addition to Guaraní, Andean-Equatorial languages include Quechua, Aymara, and Tupi, indigenous tongues that remain influential across most of modern South America.) Paraguay encloses several Guaraní dialects, among which two dominate. Mby'a is the dialect of rural aboriginals; most European and mixed-race Paraguayans speak Yopará. Although Yopará has absorbed many Spanish influences, it remains squarely Guaraní and is mostly intelligible to Mby'a speakers. And although Yopará accounts for most Guaraní communication on the national level, Mby'a is considered the "pure" tradition, insofar as it remains largely unadulterated by hispanicisms.
Though more Paraguayans speak Guaraní than Spanish, and songs and popular literature have been composed in it since colonial times, Guaraní had no official status in Paraguay until the 1992 Constitution recognised it as an official language. Though some Paraguayans still consider Guaraní a vulgar medium, many have embraced it as a patriotic touchstone. (The Paraguayan monetary unit is also called the guaraní.) Increasingly, Guaraní scholars are refuting old canards about its supposed inadequacy for 21st century communication, and are calling for academic supervision to halt the entry of Spanish words and bad neologisms into the language. Others propose that Mby'a be accepted as the scholarly standard (Guaraní has heretofore had none), that Yopará become the language of national life, and that Castellano (Spanish) be taught chiefly as a means of enabling Paraguayans to communicate with foreigners, rather than as a national medium. A Congreso Nacional de Lengua y Cultura Guaraní has been founded to oversee these and other issues, such as developing media and academic models.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/world_languages/67586
Indian Languages and effects on radio broadcasting
LANGUAGE AND RADIO IN PERU AND BOLIVIA
To put the Guatemalan sociolinguistic situation and its manifestation in radio broadcasting in perspective, I feel it is useful to briefly examine Peru and Bolivia, two other Latin American countries with large Indian populations. Peru has about three-and-a-half million Quechua speakers out of a total population of seventeen million. In addition there are about half-a-million Aymara speakers. Although their numbers are small, compared to the total population, the Indians are concentrated in five southern mountain departments, where they make up as much as ninety percent of the population. Over half of Bolivia's 5.2 million population are Indians, about equally divided between Quechuas and Aymaras. As in Guatemala, the Indians of Peru and Bolivia were subdued by the Spanish and then relegated to the roles of peasants at the bottom end of society.
However, there is a major difference between Guatemala, on the one hand, and Peru and Bolivia on the other hand. Both of the latter countries have had governments which have taken a positive approach to bilingual education and language planning. The Indians and peasants of Bolivia began receiving a more active role in the government since that country's 1952 revolution. In Peru, serious attention was given to the peasants after a leftwing military coup in 1969. Although other governments have come and gone in the interim in both cases, what was started could not be stopped.
Bilingual education has been at the forefront of both countries' policies. In recent years "there has been a tradition of positive government policy towards bilingual education programmes in Andean Latin America" (Minaya-Rowe,1986, 468), and moreover, the aim of these programs "as officially stated, is not to produce a nation of monolingual Spanish speakers, but rather one of bilingual Spanish-Quechua speakers" (Minaya- Rowe, 1986, 475). Bolivia's education system uses "a bilingual approach which will educate its adult population, allowing them to retain their own
languages and cultures, while at the same time providing the opportunity to learn Spanish (Stark, 1985, p541). Peru designed its bilingual education program "to draw the indigenous groups into the Peruvian mainstream efficiently and with respect shown to their language and culture" (Hornberger, 1987, 206).
Both countries have even gone a step further. IN 1975, QUECHUA WAS MADE AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF PERU (ESCOBAR 1981, HORNBERGER 1987), WHICH EVEN INCLUDED THE TEACHING OF QUECHUA TO SPANISH SPEAKERS. SIMILARLY, BOTH QUECHUA AND AYMARA WERE MADE OFFICIAL LANGUAGES, COEQUAL TO SPANISH, IN BOLIVIA (MINAYA-ROWE, 1986). ONE OF THE MANIFESTATIONS OF GIVING OFFICIAL STATUS WAS "THE USE OF BOTH QUECHUA OR AYMARA AND SPANISH ON (THE) RADIO" (MINAYA-ROWE, 1986).There are, in fact, some great differances between these countries and Guatemala in regards to the use of Indian languages in radio broadcasting.
Both countries, like Guatemala, have Catholic and Protestant stations that use Indian languages (Ballon, 1987; Fontenelle, 1985; Gavilan, 1983; Moore, 1985; Oros, 1987; Perry, 1982; Povrzenic, 1987b, 1987c). But what about privately owned commercial stations? In the Andean highlands of southern and central Peru, there are at least several commercial stations known to broadcast in Quechua and/or Aymara, in addition to Spanish (Hirahara & Inoue, 1984a, 1984b; Llorens and Tamayo, 1987; Povrzenic, 1987a, 1987b). These include at least one member of the Cadena de Emisoras Cruz, one of Peru's largest radio networks (Hirahara & Inoue, 1984a). In addition, Peru's most powerful commercial radio broadcaster, Radio Union in Lima, has an hour long program in Quechua every morning (Hirahara, 1981; Montoya, 1987). Likewise, in Bolivia commercial broadcasters are known to broadcast in indigenous languages (Gwyn, 1983; La Defensa, 1986; Povrzenic, 1983).
What is most significant, though, is that in both cases the official government stations have added Indian language broadcasts. Peru's Radio Nacional broadcasts in both Quechua and Aymara (Povrzenic, 1987a), as does Bolivia's Radio Illimani (Moore, 1985). IN FACT, THE PERUVIAN GOVERNMENT WENT A STEP FURTHER IN 1988 WHEN THEY RENAMED RADIO NACIONAL WITH THE QUECHUA NAME RADIO PACHICUTEC (KLEMETZ, 1989).
In summary, the sociolinguistic situation in Peru and Bolivia is markedly different from that in Guatemala, although all three share Spanish as a dominant language over various native languages. The difference, though is that in Peru and Bolivia, efforts have been made not only to preserve, but to give status to the native languages. Furthermore, the status of native languages in the two countries is reflected in their use by all levels of radio broadcasting in each country; private, religious, and governmental.
http://aymara.org/listarchives/archivo2001/msg00322.html
SPANISH IN THE PHILIPPINES
According to the 1990 Philippine census, there were 2,660 native Spanish speakers in the Philippines.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language_in_the_Philippines
NO SPANISH IN GUAM
Guam was probably explored by the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan (sailing for Spain) in 1521. The island was formally claimed by Spain in 1565, and its people were forced into submission and conversion to Roman Catholicism beginning in 1668. After the Spanish-American War of 1898, Spain ceded Guam to the United States. From 1899 to 1949, the U.S. Navy administered Guam, except during the Japanese occupation from 1941–1944. Guam was liberated by American military forces in the summer of 1944. Guam's economy is based on tourism and U.S. military spending (U.S. naval and air force bases occupy one-third of the land on Guam).
Languages: English and Chamorro; note: most residents are bilingual; Japanese also widely spoken
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0113950.html
ERIC Identifier: ED335176
Publication Date: 1991-05-00
Author: Santiestevan, Stina
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools Charleston WV.
Use of the Spanish Language in the United States: Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities. ERIC Digest.
Continuing controversy about the nation's non-English speakers--particularly its Spanish speakers--often prompts two questions. First, will the use of Spanish diminish or grow more widespread? Second, is the use of the Spanish language only a challenge for educators and citizens, or does it also present opportunities as yet unrealized?
This Digest addresses policymakers, administrators, and teachers of Spanish-speaking students. It is based largely on a study by sociologist Calvin Veltman (1988), The Future of the Spanish Language in the United States. The Digest examines the Spanish-speaking group in the United States, its growth through net immigration and natural increase, and its eventual decline as speakers shift to English.
THE NUMBERS
Not all U.S. Hispanics speak Spanish, of course, but almost all U.S. Spanish speakers are Hispanic, and the Hispanic population is growing rapidly. In 1989, the nation's Hispanic population was estimated to be 20.1 million, a 39 percent increase over the 1980 Census figure of 14.5 million. The rate of increase for the total U.S. population was 9.5 percent, but for the non-Hispanic population it was 7.5 percent. Hispanics were 8.2 percent of the population in 1989, compared to 6.5 percent in 1980 (Hispanic Policy Development Project, 1990).
The Hispanic Policy Development Project (HPDP, 1990) has projected the following U.S. Hispanic population figures:
1990: 22,024,000
1995: 27,692,000, and
2000: 34,818,000.
Due to immigration and natural increase, the number of U.S. Spanish speakers will continue to grow (for example, Word, 1989), but the recent study by Veltman (1988) sharply contradicts the widespread impression that Hispanic immigrants to the United States resist learning English.
Despite public opinion to the contrary, the data suggest that U.S. Hispanics--both native born and immigrants--do learn and speak English. Moreover, they want their children to speak English (Veltman, 1988). After 10 to 15 years in the United States, some 75 percent of all Hispanic immigrants are speaking English regularly, and virtually all their children will speak English.
The maintenance of Spanish language use in the United States depends on the continuous arrival of new Hispanic immigrants. Because of ongoing immigration, bilingualism may indeed persist longer among Hispanics than it did among other immigrant groups, particularly in certain parts of the country. But continuing immigration does not delay the learning of English by immigrants who are already here or by the native born (Veltman, 1988).
Veltman developed unique population models simulating the flow of immigrants and their children into national language communities. His model is similar to that used by the U.S. Census Bureau (for example, U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1982), but adds language practice and language change factors (Veltman, 1988, chapter 10). Although he analyzes much of the language data collected by the Census Bureau, his projections are based largely on data derived from the Bureau's 1976 Survey of Income and Education. This survey contains the best available data for both mother tongue and current language use.
In 1976, some 10.5 million people in the United States spoke Spanish. Of these, only about 4.5 million were mainly Spanish-speaking, including 2 million who spoke Spanish only occasionally. However, some of those who have shifted to English were not counted; lost to the surveys are Hispanics who speak English and live in households where English is the principal home language. They likely have been classified as "Anglophones," persons of English mother tongue in Veltman's terminology. ("Mother tongue" is the language first learned and spoken as a child.)
Using a model that projects a net Hispanic immigration of 250,000 per year, Veltman predicts that the Spanish-speaking group, both monolingual and bilingual, will total 16.6 million by the year 2001 (Veltman, 1988, p. 102). Of these, some 95 percent of the immigrant population will have Spanish for their mother tongue. However, only a bare majority of the native born will be given Spanish as their first language. This fact is of pivotal importance.
DO THEY LEARN AND USE ENGLISH?
How rapidly individuals learn English and how much English they speak is related to how long they have been in the United States and how old they were when they arrived. Almost all Hispanic immigrants remain lifetime bilinguals; they use different languages in different situations. But the language shift process begins immediately upon an immigrant's arrival in the U.S., progresses rapidly, and ends within approximately 15 years. The younger the person, the more complete is the movement to English (Garcia, 1983; Veltman, 1988).
With respect to immigrant children, 70 percent of those 5 to 9 years of age, after a stay of about 9 months, speak English on a regular basis. After 4 years, nearly all speak English regularly, and about 30 percent prefer English to Spanish. After 9 years, 60 percent have shifted to English; after 14 years--as young adults--70 percent have abandoned the use of Spanish as a daily language. By the time they have spent 15 years in the United States, some 75 percent of all Hispanic immigrants are using English every day (Veltman, 1988, p. 44).
The future of the Spanish language in the U.S. depends on the language choices of persons of Spanish mother tongue; what language will they give to their children? The use of English by parents leads inexorably to the birth of children whose mother tongue becomes English (Garcia, 1983; Veltman, 1988).
THE LANGUAGE-SHIFT PROCESS
Like the language shift of immigrants before them, that of Spanish-speaking immigrants spans three generations.
* The generation of immigrants continues to speak Spanish, although most also speak English regularly. More than half the immigrants arriving in the United States before age 14 make English their usual everyday language, and Spanish becomes a second language. A small number, in fact, no longer speak it at all.
* Their children speak English fluently, although they may use Spanish as a second language. A significant number, however, are given English as their mother tongue, and 7 out of 10 become English speakers for all practical purposes.
* Virtually all their grandchildren will have English for their mother tongue, and they will speak Spanish seldom, if at all.
Thus, the maintenance of Spanish language use in the U.S. requires a continuous flow of new Hispanic immigrants. According to Veltman's model, a break in the immigrant stream would stabilize the size of the Spanish-speaking population for about 15 years. After such a break, decline would become increasingly more rapid.
CONCLUSIONS
Given the inevitable shift of Spanish speakers to the use of English, what are the policy implications? They entail several conclusions and recommendations (Estrada, 1988; Veltman, 1988), as follows.
* The English language is not endangered by the use of Spanish.
* Simple courtesy suggests that essential public announcements and services should be provided in Spanish, especially for the very young and the elderly.
* Many more English classes for adults are needed. Current waiting lists are long in many communities--notably in New York City and Los Angeles--with large and growing concentrations of Hispanics.
* Spanish-speaking children need bilingual education.
* Bilingual capabilities should be encouraged generally--among everyone, regardless of mother tongue.
Bilingual education programs do not slow the process of language shift to English (HPDP, 1988; Veltman, 1988). The purpose of such programs, after all, is to smooth the transition to English, not to maintain Spanish.
But bilingual classes do enable Hispanic children to maintain their grade levels and to avoid being held back, while at the same time learning English (Veltman, 1983). The children will--in any case--learn English, but, according to the Hispanic Policy Development Project:
"These children are best served by programs that teach English and simultaneously develop basic reading and computation skills in Spanish....At present, less than a quarter of Hispanic children who need language assistance are enrolled in transitional bilingual or other programs designed to expedite language shift and provide basic skills education." (HPDP, 1988, pp. 9, 26)
Nicolau and Valdivieso (1988) report that 25 percent of Hispanic students fall behind their classmates and are overage as they begin high school. According to this account, poor academic performance and being older in grade than their peers contribute significantly to the high Hispanic dropout rates of 45 to 50 percent.
Nicolau and Valdivieso also suggested that the bilingual capabilities of the nation's Spanish speakers, currently scorned, should be put to use. By some estimates, there will be 550 million Spanish-speaking consumers in Latin America by the year 2000. With some foresight, the U.S. economy and national influence could be enhanced by the preservation of a pool of literate Spanish speakers. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics show, however, that only 4 percent of Hispanic students sign up for the three years of high school Spanish that would develop the necessary literacy.
REFERENCES
Estrada, L. (1988). Policy Implications of Hispanic Demographics (Tomas Rivera Center Report, Vol. 1, No. 1). Claremont, CA: Tomas Rivera Center.
Garcia, E. (1983). Early Childhood Bilingualism, with Special Reference to the Mexican-American Child. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 233 564)
Hispanic Policy Development Project. (1988). Closing the Gap for U.S. Hispanic Youth: Public/Private Strategies. Washington, DC: Hispanic Policy Development Project. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 298 242)
Nicolau, S., & Valdivieso, R. (1988). The Veltman report: What it says, what it means. In C. Veltman, The Future of the Spanish Language in the United States (pp. i-ix). Washington, DC: Hispanic Policy Development Project. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 295 485)
United States Bureau of the Census. (1982). Ancestry and Language in the United States: November 1979 (Current Population Reports, Special Studies, Series P-3, No. 116). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 227 680)
United States Bureau of the Census. (1989). The Hispanic Population in the United States: March 1988. (Current Population Reports, Series P-20, No. 438). Washington, DC: Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 299 081 [Advance Report])
Veltman, C. (1983). Language Shift in the United States. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Mouton Publishers.
Veltman, C. (1988). The Future of the Spanish Language in the United States. Washington, DC: Hispanic Policy Development Project. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 295 485)
Word, D. (1989). Population Estimates by Race and Hispanic Origin for States, Metropolitan Areas, and Selected Counties: 1980-1985 (Current Population Reports, Series P-25, No. 1040-RD-1). Washington, DC: Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 316 453)
http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9221/spanish.htm
La Herencia was voted the City's Official Publication of the Santa Fe 400th Anniversay in 2006 by the Santa Fe City Council.
La Herencia continues in the tradition of the Spanish press in the Southwest that began in Santa Fe in 1834 and, ironically, ended in Santa Fe in 1958. Once again in Santa Fe, La Herencia began publication in 1994.
LA HERENCIA WAS FOUNDED BY SANTA FE NATIVE, ANA PACHECO, IN RESPONSE TO THE RAPID DECLINE OF THE
SPANISH LANGUAGE AND HISPANIC CULTURE OF NEW MEXICO. The quarterly publication provides information on Hispanic culture with articles written by local historians from New Mexico and the Southwest. The editorial consists of oral history, Spanish language and Southwestern literature, book reviews, poetry, recipes, myths and other forms of Spanish and Mexican folklore retold with documentary photographs and illustrations. Current issues and trends are also covered. La Herencia is the only publication of its kind written about Hispanic culture by Hispanics from the Southwest. La Herencia is the publication for Hispanic literary arts in the 21st century.
http://www.santafe400th.com/index.php?page=la-herencia
Les pays où l'espagnol est minoritaire
Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay live in a particular situation. Au Pérou , 47 % des Péruviens parlent l'espagnol alors que le reste de la population utilise l'une des 85 langues «indiennes» (dont l'aymara et le quechua). L'espagnol est minoritaire également en Bolivie (43 %) et au Paraguay (3 %). On compte une bonne quarantaine de langues «indiennes» en Bolivie (dont l'aymara et le quechua).
Enfin, dans deux pays, le Paraguay en Amérique du Sud et la Guinée équatoriale en Afrique, la quasi-totalité de la population emploie une autre langue que l'espagnol comme langue maternelle. Cette situation ressemble à celle de plusieurs États francophones ou anglophones d'Afrique: une infime minorité utilise la langue officielle comme langue maternelle. Au Paraguay, près de 97 % de la population parle le guarani. Selon le paragraphe 2 de l'article 140 de la Constitution paraguayenne (1992): «Ses langues officielles sont le castillan et le guarani.»
Quant à la Guinée équatoriale , coincée par le Cameroun et le Gabon (deux États de langue française), l'espagnol y demeure la langue officielle (avec le français), mais 75 % de la population parlent le fang et 25 % se partagent les sept autres langues de ce petit État de 410 000 habitants. Durant l'année 1998, le Parlement a adopté la Loi constitutionnelle portant modification de l'article 4 de la Loi fondamentale et établissant que «les langues officielles de la république de Guinée équatoriale sont l'espagnol et le français». Dans les faits, l'espagnol est la première langue officielle, le français, la seconde.
Countries where Spanish is a minority
Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay live in a particular situation. In Peru, 47% of Peruvians speak Spanish while the rest of the population uses one of 85 languages "Indian" (including the Aymara and Quechua). Spanish is also a minority in Bolivia (43%) and Paraguay (3%). Spanish is also a minority in Bolivia (43%) and Paraguay (3%). There are a good forty languages "Indian" in Bolivia (with Aymara and Quechua).
Finally, in two countries, Paraguay in South America and Equatorial Guinea in Africa, almost all of the population uses a language other than Spanish as their mother tongue. This situation resembles that of several states of Francophone and Anglophone Africa: a small minority use the official language as mother tongue. In Paraguay, about 97% of the population speaks Guarani. According to paragraph 2 of Article 140 of the Constitution of Paraguay (1992): "Its official languages are Castilian and Guarani."
As for Equatorial Guinea, squeezed between Cameroon and Gabon (two French-speaking states), including the Spanish remains the official language (with French), but 75% of the population speaks the blood and 25% share seven other languages of this small country of 410 000 inhabitants. During 1998, Parliament adopted the Constitutional Act Amending Article 4 of the Basic Law and stating that "the official languages of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea are Spanish and French. In fact, Spanish is the first official language, French, second.
http://www.tlfq.ulaval.ca/axl/Langues/2vital_inter_espagnol.htm
Paraguaigua noñe'êkuaáiva guarani pytaguarôguáicha hetâme
May 1, 2001
"A Paraguayan who can't speak Guaraní," opines this proverb, "is like a foreigner in his own land." In fact, between 90% and 95% of Paraguay's 5 million inhabitants speak Guaraní (pronounced "wa-ra-NEE," with a guttural rasp on the "wa"). That makes this indigenous language not just Paraguay's dominant language (by comparison, only 75% of Paraguayans speak Spanish), but also the only First Nations language on the planet to enjoy majority-language status, as well as the only one spoken on a large scale by non-aboriginals. (About half of Guaraní speakers are of European descent.) Finally, Guaraní earns Paraguay membership in that most restricted of clubs, the Officially Bilingual Nations of the Americas, a distinction it shares only with Canada and Haïti.
Victory in conquest
At contact, Guaraní cultures dominated northern Argentina, eastern Bolivia, and southern Brazil and Paraguay. In fact, after Arawakan, Guaraní may have been the most geographically widespread language in Latin America. But unlike every other native people in the Americas, the Guaraní managed to remain influential in Paraguay even after Spanish conquest. So influential were they in fact that the newcomers found they had to learn the local language to get by. Modern Paraguayans call Guaraní ñe'engatú ("dear speech"), or abá ñe'é ("common man's speech"). Traditionally relegated to a vernacular role in Paraguayan society, until recently Guaraní was not taught in schools or used in formal contexts in spite of its superior demographics. Today, thanks to a growing Paraguayan identity movement, it is poised to assume more substantial responsibilities in Paraguay and in the world.
The term "Guaraní" actually refers to a group of dialects of the Andean-Equatorial language family. (In addition to Guaraní, Andean-Equatorial languages include Quechua, Aymara, and Tupi, indigenous tongues that remain influential across most of modern South America.) Paraguay encloses several Guaraní dialects, among which two dominate. Mby'a is the dialect of rural aboriginals; most European and mixed-race Paraguayans speak Yopará. Although Yopará has absorbed many Spanish influences, it remains squarely Guaraní and is mostly intelligible to Mby'a speakers. And although Yopará accounts for most Guaraní communication on the national level, Mby'a is considered the "pure" tradition, insofar as it remains largely unadulterated by hispanicisms.
Though more Paraguayans speak Guaraní than Spanish, and songs and popular literature have been composed in it since colonial times, Guaraní had no official status in Paraguay until the 1992 Constitution recognised it as an official language. Though some Paraguayans still consider Guaraní a vulgar medium, many have embraced it as a patriotic touchstone. (The Paraguayan monetary unit is also called the guaraní.) Increasingly, Guaraní scholars are refuting old canards about its supposed inadequacy for 21st century communication, and are calling for academic supervision to halt the entry of Spanish words and bad neologisms into the language. Others propose that Mby'a be accepted as the scholarly standard (Guaraní has heretofore had none), that Yopará become the language of national life, and that Castellano (Spanish) be taught chiefly as a means of enabling Paraguayans to communicate with foreigners, rather than as a national medium. A Congreso Nacional de Lengua y Cultura Guaraní has been founded to oversee these and other issues, such as developing media and academic models.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/world_languages/67586
Indian Languages and effects on radio broadcasting
LANGUAGE AND RADIO IN PERU AND BOLIVIA
To put the Guatemalan sociolinguistic situation and its manifestation in radio broadcasting in perspective, I feel it is useful to briefly examine Peru and Bolivia, two other Latin American countries with large Indian populations. Peru has about three-and-a-half million Quechua speakers out of a total population of seventeen million. In addition there are about half-a-million Aymara speakers. Although their numbers are small, compared to the total population, the Indians are concentrated in five southern mountain departments, where they make up as much as ninety percent of the population. Over half of Bolivia's 5.2 million population are Indians, about equally divided between Quechuas and Aymaras. As in Guatemala, the Indians of Peru and Bolivia were subdued by the Spanish and then relegated to the roles of peasants at the bottom end of society.
However, there is a major difference between Guatemala, on the one hand, and Peru and Bolivia on the other hand. Both of the latter countries have had governments which have taken a positive approach to bilingual education and language planning. The Indians and peasants of Bolivia began receiving a more active role in the government since that country's 1952 revolution. In Peru, serious attention was given to the peasants after a leftwing military coup in 1969. Although other governments have come and gone in the interim in both cases, what was started could not be stopped.
Bilingual education has been at the forefront of both countries' policies. In recent years "there has been a tradition of positive government policy towards bilingual education programmes in Andean Latin America" (Minaya-Rowe,1986, 468), and moreover, the aim of these programs "as officially stated, is not to produce a nation of monolingual Spanish speakers, but rather one of bilingual Spanish-Quechua speakers" (Minaya- Rowe, 1986, 475). Bolivia's education system uses "a bilingual approach which will educate its adult population, allowing them to retain their own
languages and cultures, while at the same time providing the opportunity to learn Spanish (Stark, 1985, p541). Peru designed its bilingual education program "to draw the indigenous groups into the Peruvian mainstream efficiently and with respect shown to their language and culture" (Hornberger, 1987, 206).
Both countries have even gone a step further. IN 1975, QUECHUA WAS MADE AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF PERU (ESCOBAR 1981, HORNBERGER 1987), WHICH EVEN INCLUDED THE TEACHING OF QUECHUA TO SPANISH SPEAKERS. SIMILARLY, BOTH QUECHUA AND AYMARA WERE MADE OFFICIAL LANGUAGES, COEQUAL TO SPANISH, IN BOLIVIA (MINAYA-ROWE, 1986). ONE OF THE MANIFESTATIONS OF GIVING OFFICIAL STATUS WAS "THE USE OF BOTH QUECHUA OR AYMARA AND SPANISH ON (THE) RADIO" (MINAYA-ROWE, 1986).There are, in fact, some great differances between these countries and Guatemala in regards to the use of Indian languages in radio broadcasting.
Both countries, like Guatemala, have Catholic and Protestant stations that use Indian languages (Ballon, 1987; Fontenelle, 1985; Gavilan, 1983; Moore, 1985; Oros, 1987; Perry, 1982; Povrzenic, 1987b, 1987c). But what about privately owned commercial stations? In the Andean highlands of southern and central Peru, there are at least several commercial stations known to broadcast in Quechua and/or Aymara, in addition to Spanish (Hirahara & Inoue, 1984a, 1984b; Llorens and Tamayo, 1987; Povrzenic, 1987a, 1987b). These include at least one member of the Cadena de Emisoras Cruz, one of Peru's largest radio networks (Hirahara & Inoue, 1984a). In addition, Peru's most powerful commercial radio broadcaster, Radio Union in Lima, has an hour long program in Quechua every morning (Hirahara, 1981; Montoya, 1987). Likewise, in Bolivia commercial broadcasters are known to broadcast in indigenous languages (Gwyn, 1983; La Defensa, 1986; Povrzenic, 1983).
What is most significant, though, is that in both cases the official government stations have added Indian language broadcasts. Peru's Radio Nacional broadcasts in both Quechua and Aymara (Povrzenic, 1987a), as does Bolivia's Radio Illimani (Moore, 1985). IN FACT, THE PERUVIAN GOVERNMENT WENT A STEP FURTHER IN 1988 WHEN THEY RENAMED RADIO NACIONAL WITH THE QUECHUA NAME RADIO PACHICUTEC (KLEMETZ, 1989).
In summary, the sociolinguistic situation in Peru and Bolivia is markedly different from that in Guatemala, although all three share Spanish as a dominant language over various native languages. The difference, though is that in Peru and Bolivia, efforts have been made not only to preserve, but to give status to the native languages. Furthermore, the status of native languages in the two countries is reflected in their use by all levels of radio broadcasting in each country; private, religious, and governmental.
http://aymara.org/listarchives/archivo2001/msg00322.html
SPANISH IN THE PHILIPPINES
According to the 1990 Philippine census, there were 2,660 native Spanish speakers in the Philippines.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language_in_the_Philippines
NO SPANISH IN GUAM
Guam was probably explored by the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan (sailing for Spain) in 1521. The island was formally claimed by Spain in 1565, and its people were forced into submission and conversion to Roman Catholicism beginning in 1668. After the Spanish-American War of 1898, Spain ceded Guam to the United States. From 1899 to 1949, the U.S. Navy administered Guam, except during the Japanese occupation from 1941–1944. Guam was liberated by American military forces in the summer of 1944. Guam's economy is based on tourism and U.S. military spending (U.S. naval and air force bases occupy one-third of the land on Guam).
Languages: English and Chamorro; note: most residents are bilingual; Japanese also widely spoken
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0113950.html
ERIC Identifier: ED335176
Publication Date: 1991-05-00
Author: Santiestevan, Stina
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools Charleston WV.
Use of the Spanish Language in the United States: Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities. ERIC Digest.
Continuing controversy about the nation's non-English speakers--particularly its Spanish speakers--often prompts two questions. First, will the use of Spanish diminish or grow more widespread? Second, is the use of the Spanish language only a challenge for educators and citizens, or does it also present opportunities as yet unrealized?
This Digest addresses policymakers, administrators, and teachers of Spanish-speaking students. It is based largely on a study by sociologist Calvin Veltman (1988), The Future of the Spanish Language in the United States. The Digest examines the Spanish-speaking group in the United States, its growth through net immigration and natural increase, and its eventual decline as speakers shift to English.
THE NUMBERS
Not all U.S. Hispanics speak Spanish, of course, but almost all U.S. Spanish speakers are Hispanic, and the Hispanic population is growing rapidly. In 1989, the nation's Hispanic population was estimated to be 20.1 million, a 39 percent increase over the 1980 Census figure of 14.5 million. The rate of increase for the total U.S. population was 9.5 percent, but for the non-Hispanic population it was 7.5 percent. Hispanics were 8.2 percent of the population in 1989, compared to 6.5 percent in 1980 (Hispanic Policy Development Project, 1990).
The Hispanic Policy Development Project (HPDP, 1990) has projected the following U.S. Hispanic population figures:
1990: 22,024,000
1995: 27,692,000, and
2000: 34,818,000.
Due to immigration and natural increase, the number of U.S. Spanish speakers will continue to grow (for example, Word, 1989), but the recent study by Veltman (1988) sharply contradicts the widespread impression that Hispanic immigrants to the United States resist learning English.
Despite public opinion to the contrary, the data suggest that U.S. Hispanics--both native born and immigrants--do learn and speak English. Moreover, they want their children to speak English (Veltman, 1988). After 10 to 15 years in the United States, some 75 percent of all Hispanic immigrants are speaking English regularly, and virtually all their children will speak English.
The maintenance of Spanish language use in the United States depends on the continuous arrival of new Hispanic immigrants. Because of ongoing immigration, bilingualism may indeed persist longer among Hispanics than it did among other immigrant groups, particularly in certain parts of the country. But continuing immigration does not delay the learning of English by immigrants who are already here or by the native born (Veltman, 1988).
Veltman developed unique population models simulating the flow of immigrants and their children into national language communities. His model is similar to that used by the U.S. Census Bureau (for example, U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1982), but adds language practice and language change factors (Veltman, 1988, chapter 10). Although he analyzes much of the language data collected by the Census Bureau, his projections are based largely on data derived from the Bureau's 1976 Survey of Income and Education. This survey contains the best available data for both mother tongue and current language use.
In 1976, some 10.5 million people in the United States spoke Spanish. Of these, only about 4.5 million were mainly Spanish-speaking, including 2 million who spoke Spanish only occasionally. However, some of those who have shifted to English were not counted; lost to the surveys are Hispanics who speak English and live in households where English is the principal home language. They likely have been classified as "Anglophones," persons of English mother tongue in Veltman's terminology. ("Mother tongue" is the language first learned and spoken as a child.)
Using a model that projects a net Hispanic immigration of 250,000 per year, Veltman predicts that the Spanish-speaking group, both monolingual and bilingual, will total 16.6 million by the year 2001 (Veltman, 1988, p. 102). Of these, some 95 percent of the immigrant population will have Spanish for their mother tongue. However, only a bare majority of the native born will be given Spanish as their first language. This fact is of pivotal importance.
DO THEY LEARN AND USE ENGLISH?
How rapidly individuals learn English and how much English they speak is related to how long they have been in the United States and how old they were when they arrived. Almost all Hispanic immigrants remain lifetime bilinguals; they use different languages in different situations. But the language shift process begins immediately upon an immigrant's arrival in the U.S., progresses rapidly, and ends within approximately 15 years. The younger the person, the more complete is the movement to English (Garcia, 1983; Veltman, 1988).
With respect to immigrant children, 70 percent of those 5 to 9 years of age, after a stay of about 9 months, speak English on a regular basis. After 4 years, nearly all speak English regularly, and about 30 percent prefer English to Spanish. After 9 years, 60 percent have shifted to English; after 14 years--as young adults--70 percent have abandoned the use of Spanish as a daily language. By the time they have spent 15 years in the United States, some 75 percent of all Hispanic immigrants are using English every day (Veltman, 1988, p. 44).
The future of the Spanish language in the U.S. depends on the language choices of persons of Spanish mother tongue; what language will they give to their children? The use of English by parents leads inexorably to the birth of children whose mother tongue becomes English (Garcia, 1983; Veltman, 1988).
THE LANGUAGE-SHIFT PROCESS
Like the language shift of immigrants before them, that of Spanish-speaking immigrants spans three generations.
* The generation of immigrants continues to speak Spanish, although most also speak English regularly. More than half the immigrants arriving in the United States before age 14 make English their usual everyday language, and Spanish becomes a second language. A small number, in fact, no longer speak it at all.
* Their children speak English fluently, although they may use Spanish as a second language. A significant number, however, are given English as their mother tongue, and 7 out of 10 become English speakers for all practical purposes.
* Virtually all their grandchildren will have English for their mother tongue, and they will speak Spanish seldom, if at all.
Thus, the maintenance of Spanish language use in the U.S. requires a continuous flow of new Hispanic immigrants. According to Veltman's model, a break in the immigrant stream would stabilize the size of the Spanish-speaking population for about 15 years. After such a break, decline would become increasingly more rapid.
CONCLUSIONS
Given the inevitable shift of Spanish speakers to the use of English, what are the policy implications? They entail several conclusions and recommendations (Estrada, 1988; Veltman, 1988), as follows.
* The English language is not endangered by the use of Spanish.
* Simple courtesy suggests that essential public announcements and services should be provided in Spanish, especially for the very young and the elderly.
* Many more English classes for adults are needed. Current waiting lists are long in many communities--notably in New York City and Los Angeles--with large and growing concentrations of Hispanics.
* Spanish-speaking children need bilingual education.
* Bilingual capabilities should be encouraged generally--among everyone, regardless of mother tongue.
Bilingual education programs do not slow the process of language shift to English (HPDP, 1988; Veltman, 1988). The purpose of such programs, after all, is to smooth the transition to English, not to maintain Spanish.
But bilingual classes do enable Hispanic children to maintain their grade levels and to avoid being held back, while at the same time learning English (Veltman, 1983). The children will--in any case--learn English, but, according to the Hispanic Policy Development Project:
"These children are best served by programs that teach English and simultaneously develop basic reading and computation skills in Spanish....At present, less than a quarter of Hispanic children who need language assistance are enrolled in transitional bilingual or other programs designed to expedite language shift and provide basic skills education." (HPDP, 1988, pp. 9, 26)
Nicolau and Valdivieso (1988) report that 25 percent of Hispanic students fall behind their classmates and are overage as they begin high school. According to this account, poor academic performance and being older in grade than their peers contribute significantly to the high Hispanic dropout rates of 45 to 50 percent.
Nicolau and Valdivieso also suggested that the bilingual capabilities of the nation's Spanish speakers, currently scorned, should be put to use. By some estimates, there will be 550 million Spanish-speaking consumers in Latin America by the year 2000. With some foresight, the U.S. economy and national influence could be enhanced by the preservation of a pool of literate Spanish speakers. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics show, however, that only 4 percent of Hispanic students sign up for the three years of high school Spanish that would develop the necessary literacy.
REFERENCES
Estrada, L. (1988). Policy Implications of Hispanic Demographics (Tomas Rivera Center Report, Vol. 1, No. 1). Claremont, CA: Tomas Rivera Center.
Garcia, E. (1983). Early Childhood Bilingualism, with Special Reference to the Mexican-American Child. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 233 564)
Hispanic Policy Development Project. (1988). Closing the Gap for U.S. Hispanic Youth: Public/Private Strategies. Washington, DC: Hispanic Policy Development Project. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 298 242)
Nicolau, S., & Valdivieso, R. (1988). The Veltman report: What it says, what it means. In C. Veltman, The Future of the Spanish Language in the United States (pp. i-ix). Washington, DC: Hispanic Policy Development Project. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 295 485)
United States Bureau of the Census. (1982). Ancestry and Language in the United States: November 1979 (Current Population Reports, Special Studies, Series P-3, No. 116). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 227 680)
United States Bureau of the Census. (1989). The Hispanic Population in the United States: March 1988. (Current Population Reports, Series P-20, No. 438). Washington, DC: Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 299 081 [Advance Report])
Veltman, C. (1983). Language Shift in the United States. Amsterdam, the Netherlands: Mouton Publishers.
Veltman, C. (1988). The Future of the Spanish Language in the United States. Washington, DC: Hispanic Policy Development Project. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 295 485)
Word, D. (1989). Population Estimates by Race and Hispanic Origin for States, Metropolitan Areas, and Selected Counties: 1980-1985 (Current Population Reports, Series P-25, No. 1040-RD-1). Washington, DC: Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 316 453)
http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9221/spanish.htm
La Herencia was voted the City's Official Publication of the Santa Fe 400th Anniversay in 2006 by the Santa Fe City Council.
La Herencia continues in the tradition of the Spanish press in the Southwest that began in Santa Fe in 1834 and, ironically, ended in Santa Fe in 1958. Once again in Santa Fe, La Herencia began publication in 1994.
LA HERENCIA WAS FOUNDED BY SANTA FE NATIVE, ANA PACHECO, IN RESPONSE TO THE RAPID DECLINE OF THE
SPANISH LANGUAGE AND HISPANIC CULTURE OF NEW MEXICO. The quarterly publication provides information on Hispanic culture with articles written by local historians from New Mexico and the Southwest. The editorial consists of oral history, Spanish language and Southwestern literature, book reviews, poetry, recipes, myths and other forms of Spanish and Mexican folklore retold with documentary photographs and illustrations. Current issues and trends are also covered. La Herencia is the only publication of its kind written about Hispanic culture by Hispanics from the Southwest. La Herencia is the publication for Hispanic literary arts in the 21st century.
http://www.santafe400th.com/index.php?page=la-herencia