Symposium on the Language of Ritual Discourse in South and Central America

Esoteric ritual or ceremonial discourse forms are widely encountered among the Indigenous peoples of South and Central America, and often differ markedly from everyday speech in their delivery (e.g. chant or song), discursive structure, lexicon, and grammar. These discursive variations have important implications for our understanding of the South/Central American linguistic landscape and its cultural and historical contexts, as well as for a deeper appreciation of Indigenous approaches to verbal art. This workshop explores these esoteric discourse forms and the dynamics of linguistic manipulation that they exhibit, with an eye to understanding the structure and sources of deviant forms, their aesthetic and enactive functions, their relevance to processes of contact and change, and other considerations.