Abstract

SARZURI-LIMA, Marcelo. From the word to text: linguistic colonialism and intercultural struggles. Rev. de Inv. Educ. [online]. 2012, vol.5, n.1, pp.59-85. ISSN 1997-4043.

This essay aims to address the issue of linguistic colonialism, the processes of denial of the word and the text of the languages of indigenous peoples. Considering these points, the essay involves two parts: the first part deals with the denial of the word subaltern groups (indigenous and Afro-American people) from an anecdote in the Constitutional Assembly in Bolivia, which shows two components of the linguistic colonialism: one related to the subalternization of indigenous languages, and the second and most important one related to the colonization of the word of those who spoke the subaltern languages. Rather than essentializing the linguistic difference, the main concern is the conflict that exists within language. The second part addresses the issue of writing from its own conception and shows the differences between two textual and communicative practices and ways of reproducing cultural memory. The analysis leads to the reduction processes of colonial writing (to literacy) and standardization processes that have been developed, both over time, involving the re-semantization processes of indigenous languages, and ends with a question: will it be possible to normalize hidian languages without re-generating processes semantizatimü

Keywords : Linguistic colonialism; linguistic negation; writing, linguistic normalization.