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Guarani
David Scott Palmer (see PERU) adds his observations to the debate about
guarani:
"In my State Department days as Chair for Latin American and Caribbean
Studies at the Foreign Service Association, I remember several occasions on
trips to Asuncion at pretty high-brow cocktail parties and dinners, often
Embassy-sponsored, when leading figures of Paraguayan politics, society,
and academia, would switch from Spanish to Guarani when they had some joke
or comment to make among themselves that they didn't want to share with the
American community.
The fact that Paraguay is, indeed, the only truly bilingual country
in Spanish America (i.e.,everyone speaks two languages and there is no
stigma attached to
using the native language in any setting) makes it ripe for comparative
study of some of the themes of bilingualism that you and WAIS colleagues
have been bandying about. I have a student now who hopes to pursue this
unique
situation, from the perspective of whether its origins might lie in the
physical elimination of the male population in the War of the Triple
Alliance, 1864-1870, and the impact of 275,000 women, mostly not educated
and Guarani speaking, on post-war Paraguayan culture and languages as the
country was resettled. I would welcome elaboration or alternative
formulations (and bibliographic references) from any colleagues."
My comment: Dictator (1814-40) Jose Gaspar Rodriguez Francia made Paraguay
a hermit kingdom (like pre-Perry Japan), continuing the policy of the
Jesuits who promoted guarani in their socialist theocracy. Even then the
Jesuits, as papists, were viewed as trouble-makers by the secular powers,
which forced the Pope to dissolve the Company. Sounds like today! Francia's
nephew Carlos Antonio Lopez reversed the isolationist policy, and his son
Francisco Solano Lopez became an expansionist imperialist, leading to the
disastrous war against the Triple Alliance of Argentina, Brazil, and
Uruguay. Paraguayan guarani is the principal survivor of the Tupi-Guarani
languages once spoken over much of South America.
As for my tour of Paraguay with the Minister of Education in the 50s, I
must assume that he was pushing the use of Spanish and that the people who
met with him knew that. His position was quite reasonable. Without a
major language like Spanish, people cut themselves off from the modern world.
Ronald Hilton - 05/21/98
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Responses to Guarani
Among the messages about guarani one from Tim Brown discusses the whole
issue of bilingualism, stressing the need to know different languages.
Michael Reid, the Economist bureau chief based in Brazil
writes in defense of his statement: .
"I would emphasis two words, "almost" and "fluent" in the sentence
"almost alone in the political elite, Oviedo speaks fluent Guarani".The
information I have received on visits to Paraguay is that, in effect, many
other politicians speak and understand a bit of Guarani. But they do not
have a natural and fluent command of the language. That would include in
particular a new, younger, urban and middle class group of political
leaders who are emerging. They grew up at a time when elite families saw
it as undesirable to be associated with a "backward"
Indian language. But, also, for example, I am told that Domingo Laino
speaks only a few phrases in Guarani. (However, I was told by one
source
that Raul Cubas does speak Guarani well--a fact I am unable to confirm
since I spoke to him only fairly briefly, and in Spanish). On the other
hand, Oviedo, I was told, speaks Guarani with absolute fluency and
confidence. In particular, when he campaigned for the Colorado primary
last year, he stumped the countryside giving speeches in Guarani, staying
with villagers. People are easily able to spot the difference between
those who speak the language naturally, and those who speak it as a
"foreign language".Without conducting an exhaustive survey, it is hard to
be more scientific on the point. But certainly Obviated ability to
communicate in Guarani with the feelings of his poorer listeners is
widely cited in Paraguay as an important factor in his political
appeal."
My comment: The language situation is very fluid, and the report by
Michael Reid is the latest I have. I would be interested in reports from
individuals who have stayed in Paraguay this year.
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Guarani: Update
Members of WAIS recently disagreed about the use of Spanish and guarani in
Paraguay. Yesterday, June 10, the government announced a plan to shift
teaching from Spanish to guarani, making Spanish the second language. The
announcement said that teaching had hitherto been in Spanish, so that my
experience when I accompanied the Minister of Education on a tour was not
surprising. The old argument about teaching children in their native
language has been revived by a populist government. The danger is that the
population will become isolated from the outside world, which as the aim of
dictators like Francia, and before that of the Jesuits.
Ronald Hilton -
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