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On Wednesday organizations and institutions defending the Aymara language warned about its possible disappearance and are preparing a congress that will define new lines of actions.
“Currently, there are three million people living in Bolivia, Peru, Chile and Argentina who speak the language. More than half of them (1.8 million) are living in Bolivia,” said Claudio Marcapaillo, the representative of the linguistics at the Public University of El Alto (UPEA).
His counterpart at the University Mayor of San Andrés (UMSA), Ignacio Apaza, recalled that a large part of the South American population spoke the language before the Spanish invasion; however, since then, the language started to disappear.
“Each year, two percent more stop speaking the language and the parents have already stopped teaching it to their children, which is provoking its extinction, and our concern,” he added.
In Argentina, an official from the Ministry of Education, Walter Gutierrez, commented that the disappearance of Aymara was imminent in his country.
This process would be due to various factors, according to Martha Gonzales from the National Institute of Aymara Languag; the fact that the Aymara language is not written, but oral, and the fear of discrimination by users of the language.
She added that saying hello in Aymara (saying “camisaqui”) could be a way to help the preservation of the language. She referred not only to the parents, but also to other professions like doctors and lawyers.
In order to address the urgent situation, the organizations' representatives decided to organize the Ninth International Congress of Aymara next November 27-29 in La Paz.
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