Language Ideologies and Orthographies: Developing a Writing System for Than Ówîngeh

<p>The use of writing to represent the heritage language represents a contentious issue for many members of Puebloan societies in the American Southwest. Many community members resist the use of writing for this purpose on the grounds that it acts as a form of colonialism, while others accept the use of writing in the heritage language because it is seen as valorizing the heritage language itself. This study seeks to address three research questions: 1) What factors motivate either a resistance to or acceptance of the use of writing to represent a heritage language? 2) If the use of writing is accepted or even promoted, what factors motivate the decision to use one writing system (e.g., alphabet, syllabary) over another? and 3) What factors motivate the decision to employ certain sound-symbol correspondences within that system? Ultimately, the factors that motivate a general resistance to the use of writing will be shown to involve the view of writing as a centrifugal, or disunifying, force, whereas the factors that motivate a general acceptance of the use of writing will be shown to involve the view of writing as a centripetal, or unifying, force. Further, by using language ideologies (i.e., syncretism, variationism, utilitarianism) as a heuristic, the decisions made regarding the development of the Than Ówîngeh orthography will be shown to support the principles of learnability, transparency, and acceptability.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Linguistics

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Linguistics

Year

2013

Author dc:creator

• Ashworth, Evan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Axelrod, Melissa
• Gómez de Garcia, Jule
• Gorbet, Larry
• Margolin, David

• anthropology
• linguistics
• linguistic anthropology
• writing system
• orthography
• language ideology

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ling_etds/2

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalrepository.unm.edu:ling_etds-1001