Editorial

Indigenous multilingualisms past and present

Although multilingualism has been the norm throughout human history, we still know very little about the full range of societal multilingualisms. To flesh out the picture, this special issue considers Indigenous contexts where the hierarchical models of multilingualism often naturalised by nation states play a more marginal role (e.g. Fishman, 1967; Lüpke, 2015, 2016). Current discussions of multilingualism may treat sociolinguistic complexity or ‘superdiversity’ (e.g. Blommaert, 2013; Vertovec, 2006) as a relatively new phenomenon; a product of our increasingly mobile and diverse era. Yet these conditions, that have long existed in more ‘peripheral’ local language communities, seem to be simply going “mainstream at the metropole” (Silverstein, 2015: 7). Attention to multilingualism in Indigenous contexts tends to focus exclusively on the dynamics between local languages on the one hand and new languages that grow or come into being as a result of colonialism on the other, such as English, Portuguese, Nheengatú or Australian Kriol.

In some regions there has been early and continuing attention to Indigenous multilingualism, such as in Americanist work on pre-contact cross-language dynamics, established in the Boasian tradition of anthropological linguistics (Kroskrity, Epps). However, in general there has been a lack of attention to relations between Indigenous languages. These dynamics can be overshadowed by a focus on colonial-Indigenous relations or rendered invisible by assumptions about traditional life informed by linguistic nationalism. As the papers in this special issue show, intra-Indigenous multilingualisms are an integral part of intra-Indigenous relations more generally, and distinct from colonial-Indigenous relations. For example, Epps notes that while code-switching between Hup and Portuguese is common, code-switching between Hup and another Indigenous language would evoke strong censure (cf. Vaughan, in press). The papers in this issue contextualise Indigenous multilingualisms, revealing the ways that multiple Indigenous languages come to be deeply embedded into the fabric of daily life. Some reflect on the effects of linguistic work on local language ideologies, such as classifications of Indigenous languages and the valorisation of certain Indigenous languages by missionaries or governments (Narayanan, Vaughan).

The papers in this issue compare observations about contemporary multilingualism with records of multilingualism from earlier contact eras and reconstructions of pre-contact patterns of language use. Intensely multilingual ecologies have been reported at various times and places within the present-day United States, Australia, South America, Melanesia, and West Africa. Many of the Indigenous communities where multilingualism has endured are at global ‘peripheries’; the edges of imperial, colonial and globalizing projects (May 2016; Pietikäinen and Kelly-Holmes, 2013; Silverstein, 2015). In researching Indigenous multilingualisms, it has typically been a challenge for researchers to ‘unlearn’ assumptions about how social and linguistic groups map onto one another (Merlan, 1981) due to their often unconscious commitment to linguistic nationalism (Irvine and Gal, 2000). There are still many open questions about the dynamics of Indigenous multilingualisms:

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  How is sociolinguistic distinctiveness projected onto language?

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  How are language boundaries maintained and regimented?

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  What is the role of variation in intensely multilingual societies?

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  How does multilingualism influence the shape of languages?

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  How have other aspects of culture interacted with language?

In this special issue, these concerns are raised across diverse regions and contexts within Australia, Africa, North America, South America, and the Arctic. Long-standing patterns of multilingualism play into more recent processes and discourses around development and identity politics (Singer, 2018). Considering studies of language maintenance and loss, Silverstein (1998) notes that “the ideological aspect of analysis is central and key to understanding how people experience the cultural continuities and interruptions in the particular case” (1998: 420). There is a great deal to be gained through closer attention to language ideologies and practices, and in particular, there is a need to develop theoretical approaches to Indigenous multilingualism in order to better understand how languages and language ecologies change within these contexts.