Lenguas minoritarias de Venezuela: consideraciones desde la perspectiva ecolingüística.

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of survival of minority languages (indigenous languages and languages of foreign diasporas) in Venezuela. The objectives were to explain the origin, evolution and maintenance of the linguistic diversity of the country, from the ecolinguistics perspective, and to make projections towards the future. After explaining the concept of linguistic ecology and comparing its objects of study to those of linguistics, the article proceeds to define linguistic contact as a starting point where begins the decline in the number of speakers of the minority language, to present the functional distribution of uses as the principal factor to estimate the continuity of the minority language, and to suggest measures for a prompt ecolinguistic intervention in order to rescue the endangered language, always taking into account the will of the respective linguistic group. It is concluded that ecolinguistic sustainability model presents itself as an opportunity for the maintenance of the linguistic diversity of Venezuela, along the road of sociolinguistic justice and equality.