Leonardo Carvajal-Gamarra Conducts Research on Language Production in Ecuador
Thanks to the Georgetown Americas Institute grant, Leonardo Carvajal-Gamarra had the opportunity to travel to Salasaka, an indigenous community in the Central Ecuadorian Andes, for four weeks between May and June 2023.
Leonardo’s dissertation explores the intricate relationship between language production and social variables such as age, gender, socio-economic status, and linguistic attitudes towards language in indigenous bilingual communities. Salasaka is a Kichwa-speaking indigenous town located near larger urban settlements in Ecuador. This community is experiencing high rates of language shift (the community is relegating Kichwa to intimate spaces and using Spanish as their primary language).
In Salasaka, Leonardo worked closely with Soledad Chango, a Kichwa researcher from the community, who helped him interview 35 Kichwa-Spanish bilinguals in different parts of the community. Although data collection was the main goal of this trip, Leonardo was also able to experience first-hand people’s lives in the community, their relationship with their native language, their attitudes towards Spanish and bilingualism, and their thoughts regarding the future of Kichwa.
Beyond academic purposes, the findings of this study may be informative when it comes to development of community groups interested in raising awareness about Kichwa, reinvigorating the language, and slowing language shift from Kichwa to Spanish.
Leonardo will be presenting preliminary results from these data at the American Association of Applied Linguistics Conference in Houston this year, and he is also getting ready to defend his dissertation proposal later this semester.