Abstract

MULIK, Stanislav; CORONA-DZUL, Beerelim; AMENGUAL, Mark  and  CARRASCO-ORTIZ, Haydée. Psycholinguistic profile of Otomi (Hñäñho)-Spanish bilinguals, migrants from Santiago Mexquititlan to Santiago de Queretaro, Mexico. Cuad. Lingüíst. Col. Méx. [online]. 2021, vol.8, e154.  Epub June 11, 2021. ISSN 2007-736X.  https://doi.org/10.24201/clecm.v8i0.154.

The study of bilingualism has mainly focused on speakers of Indo-European languages (majority languages). In Mexico there are a significant number of bilingual speakers of indigenous languages and Spanish; however, this bilingual situation has not been widely studied. The aim of the present study is to describe the psycholinguistic profile of Hñäñho-Spanish bilinguals, who migrated from Santiago Mexquititlan, Amealco, to Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico. For this purpose, the “Bilingual Language Profile” (BLP) questionnaire was employed to obtain data from 18 Hñäñho-Spanish bilinguals on four factors: language background, language use, language proficiency, and language attitudes. According to the results from the BLP, we identified balanced bilinguals (n=13), Spanish-dominant bilinguals (n=5), but no Hñäñho-dominant bilinguals. The principal component analysis showed that language background and language proficiency were the most influential factors that contribute to language dominance. Moreover, speakers with more language use also show higher language proficiency in Hñäñho. Therefore, these results suggest that language proficiency and language use are necessary to maintain the first language (Hñäñho).

Keywords : language dominance; language use; language proficiency; indigenous language; Mexico.

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