A Fala de Xálima and linguistic ideologies — some comments

Abstract

The work focuses on A Fala de Xálima, a variety of the Galician-Portuguese family with less than 3,700 speakers (province of Cáceres). It is a minority variety with disappearing vernacular forms and a dwindling number of speakers (Ramallo, 2011). The study analyzes conversations held with A Fala speakers who have an influence on the revitalization and future of the language. The article is based on the principles of sociocultural linguistics (Bucholtz and Hall, 2004, 2010); some indexical, interactional and essentialist orientations are analyzed that allow understanding the relationship between local variety and its socially significant context. The theory of linguistic ideology (Irvine and Gal, 2000) and indexicality (Silverstein, 2003) are also used. It is observed how recursive and historically marked ideological dynamics serve the speakers to defend the status quo of variety as non-existent in the official political context and how they apply the erasure strategy by not admitting that A Fala is in danger of disappearing and, thus, perpetrate the minoritization of local variety.