Hablamos combinado: Youth Talk and Identity in the Urban Peruvian Andes

Lecture by Dr. Amy Firestone

Hablamos combinado: Youth Talk and Identity in the Urban Peruvian Andes

This talk focuses on Spanish and Quechua language use and the sociolinguistic practices of a new generation in the urban Peruvian Andes. In the last several decades, there has been a large increase in rural to urban migration in the Andes, which has provoked many important changes in the sociolinguistic dynamics of Peru. While previous studies on language and migration in Peru focus on the expansion of Andean Spanish, a contact variety, there is little known about bilingualism in urban centers. This study presents an ethnographic account of bilingualism in the city, focusing on firstgeneration youth in the city of Ayacucho, Peru, a small urban capital, which has experienced high levels of migration. The results of the study indicate that youth in Ayacucho use a mix of Spanish and Quechua, which they call “combinado.” This linguistic phenomenon is more frequently used in conversations in urban spaces closer to the countryside and with family members, while Spanish is preferred in conversations in downtown spaces and with strangers. Youth’s use of “combinado” and their maintenance of different rural cultural traditions prove to be an important part of the construction of an urban Andean identity in Peru.

This talk will be given in Spanish.

Johnson Center, 337 - Meeting Room G
April 15, 2015, 6:30 PM

Sponsored by Modern & Classical Languages.