Enxet Sur
[aka Lengua Sur, Lengua, Enlhit]Classification: Enlhet-Enenlhet (Mascoyan)
·threatened
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Threatened
100 percent certain, based on the evidence available
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3,627
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"In reality, there are lots of reasons to be skeptical of these numbers or at least to not take them at face value. Despite an increase in population of almost 1500, the absolute number of speakers dropped by almost 900, which would mean that something like 15 percent of the 2002 population died between 2002 and 2012. This would require an average death rate exceeding 15 per 1,000, while the average death rate for Paraguay over a 20 year period has been around 5.5 (World Bank, 2018). The highest national crude death rate in the world is in Lesotho, with 15 per 1,000. Poverty and poor health outcomes in indigenous communities surely leads to higher mortality rates, but a 200 percent increase above the national average seems unlikely — in the U.S., by comparison, indigenous populations have on average a 30 percent higher overall mortality rate (Indian Health Service, 2019). In other words it is very likely that differences in the numbers between the 2002 and 2012 censuses were the result of more than just actual demographic changes, since the only real way to “lose” speakers is for them to die, and the death rate here to make the numbers work is improbable."
- DOMAINS OF USE
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- SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS
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- TRANSMISSION
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- MORE ON VITALITY
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"[T]here is a great range in the speaker percentages between different communities. This reflects the fact that in some communities, intergenerational transmission of the Enxet Sur language largely ceased, while in others, children still grow up speaking the language as their first language."
"Differences in rates of intergenerational transmission, however, can be observed between different villages, even within the community of El Estribo. While most villages are predominantly Enxet Sur speaking, others are predominantly Guaraní speaking. Despite the relative closeness of the villages, a child growing up in one of the predomi- nantly Guaraní speaking villages is unlikely to acquire any substantial amount of Enxet Sur. Because essentially all Enxet Sur speakers are at least second language speakers of Guaraní, if not synchronous bilinguals, marriage or other cohabitation between an Enxet Sur speaker and a non-speaker often leads to the more-or-less exclusive use of Guaraní within a household, and because most villages are made up of extended family units, this appears to suggest that the introduction of a few non-speakers into an extended family through marriage can lead to a cessation in intergenerational transmission in a relatively short period of time."
- OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY
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Guaraní
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Spanish
- LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS
"Enxet Sur is still, in many communities, the dominant home language and the language of face to face communication. Although speakers of Enxet Sur may converse in Guaraní on occasion, most of the day-to-day communication in a community like El Estribo or Makxawaya occurs in Enxet Sur."
"Enxet Sur has an officially recognized status under the 2010 Paraguayan Law of Languages (Ley de lenguas), which means that the government recognizes the existence of Enxet Sur as a distinct indigenous language and that it has some official responsibilities to protect the linguistic rights of speakers of the language, but this does not grant the language any kind of real “official” status."
"The primary formal domain of use for the language is in religion. Most Enxet Sur churches are part of the Anglican communion, stemming from the historical missionization of the eastern Paraguayan Chaco by Anglican missionaries. Numerous Bible translations have been produced since the early 20th century, and Anglican hymnals are used in the churches which have songs in Enxet Sur, Guaraní, and Spanish. Church sermons and other church activities like the ordination of clergy are all conducted in Enxet Sur, albeit a variety with a lot of formulaic speech and unique lexical items which have developed within the church domain."
"The use of Enxet Sur in education is generally quite minimal, despite some concerted efforts to improve the representation of the language in education."