Effects of multilingual signage on linguistic activation of Nahuatl language in University of Veracruz

Abstract

Since 2011 the Department of Languages of Universidad Veracruzana Intercultural proposes a multilingual signage system project for areas used by university community in the branch of La Huasteca. The target of this action was to face possible lawsuits by breach of the linguistic rights of indigenous people. Other target was to make accessible and familiar the university spaces for users thanks of the linguistic identification, although there are culturally alien. Nevertheless, after two years, the evaluation of impact and range into several sociolinguistic dimensions allows us to know what was the magnitude and influence of that kind of actions over indigenous linguistic communities, faced with the challenge of turning Nahuatl into a language used in higher education. The results were not desired because of this action did not awaken interest and refl ection on the need of activating the language. These results were very different in the case of the Ñuhu community in that same branch.

Keywords: Language planning, linguistic rights, multilingual signage.