Plurilingüismo como política sociolingüística en tiempos de diversificación de lenguas oficiales [Plurilingüismo como política sociolingüística en tiempos de diversificación de lenguas oficiales]

The twentieth century was marked by an assimilationist policy for indigenous languages, which were subsumed under a transitional model of bilingualism with a focus on the acquisition of Spanish or another dominant language. In that sense, the speakers of indigenous languages became bilingual with Spanish in many Latin American countries by virtue of educational policies and their practices either in primary schools or in universities. This was due to the social discrimination towards indigenous languages undervalued as “vernacular,” while Spanish was overvalued. This diglossic fact produced the semantic shift of several Aymara terms, when they were used by Spanish speakers in urban contexts. In contrast, in the twenty-first century we witness the revaluation of indigenous languages, more on paper than in actual practice. The complex diversity of indigenous languages has led some countries to recognize them both politically and legally as language communities according to the territorial principle. In that sense, the objective of this paper is to analyze both Aymara and Quechua languages in a changing context from diglossia and societoglossia to plurilingualism in the Plurinational State of Bolivia. We call this recognition of language diversity linked to territory plurilingualism