Linguistic Stigma and Power Surrounding the Speakers of Lunfardo and Cocoliche in Early 20th Century Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Date
2024
Authors
Morley, Catherine
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Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
This paper examines the role of language as it relates to the stigma, discrimination, and ethnic exclusion of speakers of the Spanish-Italian contact languages cocoliche and lunfardo in Buenos Aires, Argentina during the early 20th century through an analysis of how various theater and popular representations propagated this harmful imagery and stigma. The research draws on existing literature and historical evidence of a high volume of Italian immigration to Argentina over nearly a century and the resulting social subjugation of those immigrants. Through imagery presented in carnivals and theater that represented Italian immigrants as buffoons or uneducated and speakers of a Spanish-Italian contact language as criminals and unworthy citizens, the porteƱo (local) class identified a language with harmful stereotypes. This research has implications for the consideration of contact languages and their value and how they contribute to social hierarchies of prestige languages and who is given power or higher status based on their linguistic expression.
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Keywords
Romance Languages, Sociolinguistics, Linguistic Stigma, Contact Languages, Argentina