Linguistic Landscape Analysis of La Plaza de Ponchos in Otavalo, Ecuador

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2019
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Swarthmore College. Dept. of Linguistics
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en
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Full copyright to this work is retained by the student author. It may only be used for non-commercial, research, and educational purposes. All other uses are restricted.
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Abstract
Using Google Street View, I examine the Linguistic Landscape of La Plaza de Ponchos, an openair tourist market in Otavalo, Ecuador to understand linguistic attitudes of Kichwa, a language indigenous to the region that was largely suppressed 16th century Spanish colonialism and later Ecuadorian nation building. I consider the lasting impressions of Spanish colonialism at play with increased globalization and media influence. Through my analysis I look at both bottom-up and top-down signage as a measure of community attitudes towards Kichwa as compared to the linguistically dominant languages English and Spanish. My findings suggest that, as expected, Kichwa does not have a place in settings of commerce as compared to Spanish and English. These results are comparable to other multilinguistic Linguistic Landscape analyses such as those conducted in Friesland, Basque Country, and Israel/Palestine (Cenoz & Gortern, 2006; Ben-Rafael et al. 2008). Later, I evaluate the merits of this study with the knowledge that Google Street View has not been updated since 2014 and that the landscape has since changed, concluding that Otavalo is an example of how rapidly linguistic attitudes can change and how important it is that we as culturally conscious academics devote our attention to this change.
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