El translenguaje digital, estrategia discursiva ecológica de jóvenes bilingües quechua ”“ castellano en Facebook y whatsapp

Abstract

Indigenous languages ”‹”‹in Bolivia are vulnerable in digital social networks. Despite their recognition and officialization, their face-to-face and digital use in everyday interactions are restricted to the adult population and to small and intimate areas. Digital social networks constitute a new relational scenario for young people of Quechua origin who experience new forms of communication through a multimodal language that forces the Quechua language to fight its displacement and resist the onslaught by Spanish and English. From the digital ethnography of speech as a qualitative method that involved the application of techniques such as digital observation, interview and linguistic autobiography, the article shows how young schoolchildren from two provinces of the Department of Cochabamba, Bolivia, develop a translanguage that combines and complements the use of Quechua and Spanish languages ”‹”‹in their digital interactions on Facebook and WhatsApp. Contrary to what is stated by classical linguistic theory ”“ alternation, code mixing and interference as a reflection of the imperfections of bilingualism ”“, in this article we propose that translanguage constitutes an ecological discursive strategy that reflects the mastery of the languages ”‹”‹that are part of the comprehensive linguistic repertoire of bilingual speakers, their complementary use skills and the rules of interaction and interpretation in digital interactions based on communication needs, interlocutors, conversation topics and communicative intentions.