Redemption Radio: Aymara Language Planning at Radio San Gabriel

Abstract

This paper examines the links between language use, speakers and institutional authority in the enforcement of a "language purity" policy in programming at Radio San Gabriel (RSG), the oldest Aymara language radio station in Bolivia.RSG self-identifies as an Aymara cultural epicenter and situates language use as central to this project.RSG's Aymara language department develops and approves scripts and monitors programming.The acts of identifying Spanish loan word "aberrations" and replacing them with Aymara neologisms or archaicisms provide a central focus for this department, but so too does their program intended for bilingual teachers -Aymara Language.Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork at RSG and on linguistic and discourse analysis of a broadcast of the program Aymara Language, this study responds to calls for ethnographic work describing "bottomup" descriptions of language planning and Indigenous language revitalization.