The author presents a comprehensive look at language use and attitudes among the Kiche people of Guatemala. The book combines qualitative and quantitive analyses to test two hypotheses: (1) that K'iche' and Spanish are in a stable diglossic relationship and (2) that there is a significant relationship between language use and degree of acceptance of modern (i.e., nontraditional) identity factors in K'iche' communities. The study examines seven K'iche' communities, using the field notes and observational data collected over a two-year period. The analysis of the qualitative data follows the framework of Ethnolinguistic Vitality Theory. The quantitive analysis is based on Fishman's notion of domains of use (who speaks what to whom and when). This book will appeal to sociolinguists interested in factors affecting language maintenance and shift, Mayanists who are involved in current efforts to revitalize and maintain the languages of Guatemala, and language planners and policy makers who desire to trace the outworkings of language policy decisions in an actual language-use context. M. Paul Lewis earned a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Georgetown University, Washington D.C. He began fieldwork in Guatemala in 1975 and has worked among the K'iche', Uspanteko, and Ixil peoples in Guatemala. He was the International Sociolinguistics Coordinator, 1996-2002 and is currently an International Sociolinguistics Consultant.

A collection of selected papers presented at SIL International's Third International Language Assessment Conference in England (1997). Presents papers by leading scholars and SIL International language survey specialists that reflect various issues related to ethnolinguistic vitality and its assessment and present a variety of approaches to this study. Includes the sociology of language, anthropological grid/group model, social network theory, and motivations for ethnolinguistic vitality maintenance, power, and solidarity orientations. Is of interest to sociolinguists, sociologists, anthropological linguists, and those in language planning and language development. Is a source of information about a wide range of language situations, and an encouragement to those working among speakers of less commonly known languages.