Acceso usuarios
Reino Unido
This paper explores the sociolinguistic practices of a group of young bilingual rappers in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. Against the background of ongoing language shift to Spanish in the region, the language choices of a group of Maya youths involved in Hip Hop culture and their agency as policy-makers at the grassroots level is analysed. While language mixing and hybridisation are everyday communicative practices for Maya speakers, rapping either completely in Maya or in a clear-cut alternation between Spanish and Maya is a conscious strategy for language promotion among these youths. I argue that the language choices in their music performances, which are underpinned by an essentialist outlook on language contact, accrue authenticity and legitimacy to Maya and can ultimately work towards the revitalisation of this language.
