“Haciendo un freestyle con los qompas”: juegos verbales y recontextualización de géneros discursivos en el rap qom

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the bilingual Qom-Spanish verbal production of a “rap originario” band formed by Qom (Toba) indigenous youth, born in an urban neighborhood of Buenos Aires (Argentina). In a context of striking language shift, it shows how this musical genre condenses the indigenous language repertoire of this generation whose first language is Spanish. Attention is paid to the specific resources of the bilingual verbal play, such as mixing or code switching, that play a leading role in the performance of rap. Likewise, we argue that rap makes it possible to permeate own and valued discursive genres among the Qom people—such as certain formulas of everyday speech, rogative, advice or lullabies—, in a process of recontextualization that allows to mold and create their own ways of ethnic and age self-identification. Finally, we discuss the scope of this emerging genre in terms of visibility and promotion of the indigenous language.

Keywords

• Toba (Qom)
• rap
• indigenous youth
• language revitalization
• verbal play
• discursive genre