Ideologías lingüísticas del español en comunidades y páginas de Facebook : políticas de lengua e identidad social en Chile contemporáneo

Abstract

This paper addresses discourses about Spanish and its development in the Chilean context in the 21st century by analyzing exchanges about language on Facebook between 2009 and 2019. The study focused on Facebook communities and pages administered from Chile, in which language and identity policies are discussed in the Chilean context. Research led to the detection of phenomena such the minimization of language problems as relevant within Chile’s digital space; a scarce presence of ideological tropes of national pride; and, notably, the emergence of a renewal of the ideology around the fact that in Chile “people speak poorly” based on political and identity necessities. There were also detections of a revaluation of Chilean Spanish, especially among the lower classes. All this contrasts with a positive vision of the Mapuche or Mapudungun language, the most widely spoken native language in the country, and an expansion of its political reach.

Keywords

• chilean spanish
• spanish language glottopolitics in social media
• language ideologies online
• social media as linguistic corpora
• social media critical sociolinguistics