Language Competition and Shift in New Australia, Paraguay

244 Pages·2019·2.52 MB·

by  Danae Perez

PALGRAVE STUDIES IN MINORITY
LANGUAGES AND COMMUNITIES
Language Competition
and Shift in
New Australia,
Paraguay
Danae Perez
Palgrave Studies in Minority Languages
and Communities
Series Editor
Gabrielle Hogan-Brun
University of Bristol
Bristol, UK
Worldwide migration and unprecedented economic, political and social
integration present serious challenges to the nature and position of lan-
guage minorities. Some communities receive protective legislation and
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Danae Perez
Language
Competition
and Shift in New
Australia, Paraguay
Danae Perez
University of Zurich
Zürich, Switzerland
Palgrave Studies in Minority Languages and Communities
ISBN 978-3-030-24988-5 ISBN 978-3-030-24989-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24989-2
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Preface
As I set out to explore New Australia, I soon realized that this book
was long overdue. It was overdue not only because the unique history
of this community with its ideological origin and courageous execution
was fascinating and of interest to scholars and researchers alike, but also
because it had attracted the attention of many a journalist as well as the
wider public in Paraguay, Australia, and beyond. And despite the con-
siderable amount of material available on the inception of this commu-
nity and on some of its members and descendants, a heap of colonial
misunderstandings and misconceptions of facts and dynamics were still
lingering. Given my anthropological motivation and my lack of per-
sonal involvedness in both Old and New Australia, I quickly became an
ambassador between different worlds. I therefore hope this book makes
a contribution not only to shed new light on Australia’s lost colony and
Paraguay’s Australian root, but also to show how a careful ethnographic
approach allows us to better understand the complexities of the post-
colonial world.
Zürich, Switzerland Danae Perez
v
Acknowledgements
First of all, I would like to thank all the people who paved the way for
this book to appear. Prof. Daniel Schreier was the one who invited me
to explore Paraguay and New Australia, and while I enthusiastically did
that, his openness, trust, and support throughout the process made it all
possible for me in the first place.
The descendants of New Australia in Paraguay played a pivotal role
in that their acceptance and collaboration allowed this book to be writ-
ten. Sonia Uldera de Smith deserves special mention here, as her inter-
est and effort enabled me to access and understand the community, and
working with her was a wonderfully enriching experience. The Smiths
and Kennedys in Nueva Londres, as well as the Cadogans and Woods in
Asunción, are an amazingly smart, wary, and hospitable bunch of peo-
ple that I admire greatly. I dedicate this book to all of you.
On this side of the globe, I am grateful to those who carried me
through the process of making sense of New Australia. Lena Zipp,
Adina Staicov, and Nicole Eberle were ready to help when things got
particularly unstructured, and Seema Sondhi and Nicolas Lombard read
the first draft of this book. And Patty and Lila, my intrepid little com-
panions, showed the same interest in New Australia as I did and shared
this experience with me. ¡Un millón de gracias!
vii
Contents
1 Introduction 1
References 15
2 Language Contact and Competition in Latin America 19
2.1 Languages in Competition: Do Languages
Exterminate Each Other? 28
2.2 English in Latin America 42
2.3 New Australia as a Case in Point 50
References 53
3 Approaching New Australia from Within and Without 61
3.1 Representations of New Australia in Journalistic Reports 69
3.2 As a Researcher in Nueva Australia 74
References 81
4 Off to New Australia 85
4.1 The Inception of New Australia 86
4.2 Paraguay: The “Promised Land”? 96
References 107
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x Contents
5 New Australians in Paraguay 109
5.1 Setting Up New Australia 110
5.2 Cosme 129
5.3 A Word on the Failure of New Australia 135
5.4 New Australia in Retrospect 143
References 145
6 Language Shift in New Australia 147
6.1 Language Institutionalization in Nueva Australia
and Cosme 151
6.2 The Demographic Development of Nueva Australia
and Cosme 158
6.3 The Shifting Status of English and Its Speakers
in Nueva Australia 165
6.4 Shifting Values in New Australia 188
6.5 How Exceptional Is Language Shift in New Australia? 190
References 192
7 The Role of English in Nueva Australia Today 197
References 211
8 Concluding Remarks and Outlook 213
References 218
References 221
Index 237
List of Figures
Fig. 6.1 The shifting sociolinguistic space of the Anglo-Paraguayan
community over the twentieth century 189
Picture 6.1 Alexander Kennedy’s 1917 mathematics booklet 153
Map 1.1 Paraguay and its rivers (https://d-maps.com/index.
php?lang en) 12
=
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