Susan Garzon, R. McKenna Brown, Julia Becker Richards, & Wuqu' Ajpub' (Arnulfo Simón), The life of our language: Kaqchikel Maya maintenance, shift, and revitalization. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998. Pp. xvi, 239. Hb $35.00, pb $17.95.

Abstract

This volume presents four case studies of language use in communities that speak Kaqchikel (also spelled Cakchiquel), a Mayan language of Guatemala; the authors provide a rich picture of the varying patterns of language shift within a single language group. They situate the current practices in both time and space, reviewing linguistic policy from Spanish colonial times to the present, and they demonstrate how state-level programs have played out differently within different communities. Universalistic considerations of hegemony, nationalism, economic pressure, and availability of educational resources are balanced against local realities of micro-economics, municipal politics, and the job market. A Kaqchikel author, Wuqu' Ajpub', contributes a personal history which grounds the generalizations and historical particularities of the community-based case studies in human terms. The time depth of the case studies emphasizes the constantly changing nature of language interactions within the Kaqchikel region. Each of them brings one to the conclusion that the community is currently on a cusp where Kaqchikel language maintenance within the next generation is an open question. The authors strive for a positive perspective and champion linguistic revitalization; however, their data do not predict a resurgence, though they do not preclude one.