Aymara, one of four national languages in Bolivia, has become endangered within the past generation in the Coroico municipality. The preponderance of language shift in the Coroico municipality can be understood by examining the sociohistorical language attitudes in the eras of colonialism, nationalism, and globaliziation. However, globalization has proven itself a double-edged sword within Bolivia’s language politics. Due to neoliberal policy changes and top-down education reforms implemented in 1994, Bolivia has attempted to adopt a language-as-resource orientation to alleviate the degradation of Bolivia’s indigenous languages. Bottom-up grassroots movements nationwide reveal a tenuous shift away from colonial-era language attitudes. My focus centers on historical legislation and language attitudes against multilingualism, as well as legislation and language attitudes promoting multilingualism. This case study exemplifies efforts to curb language abandonment in the face of globalization and the growth of world languages.
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