Debating translanguaging

In this article, we discuss the concept of translanguaging by showing how theoretically unhelpful it is to account for language dynamics among Indigenous speakers leading revitalization projects in the Southern Cone of Latin America. We show how clear-cut distinctions between Spanish and Indigenous languages are crucial for minority speakers’ socio-political struggles against Spanish cultural, political, and social hegemony.

We open our discussion by reviewing the different definitions of translanguaging in sociolinguistics and applied linguistics. We examine how the term sometimes overlaps with other previously established concepts such as code-switching and code-mixing and show the importance of inscribing any concepts in the historical and socio-political context in which they are used. We illustrate how Indigenous peoples’ understanding of multilingualism challenges linguists’ discourse on translanguaging. Our analysis aims at prompting scholars to reflect on the ideologies and practices we describe here to understand and attend more responsibly to Indigenous peoples’ political concerns.