Mapudungun in Santiago de Chile: Vitality and social representation among urban mapuche people El mapudungún en Santiago de Chile: Vitalidad y representaciones sociales en los mapuches urbanos

Abstract

The aim of this piece of research was to study the linguistic vitality of Mapudungún in the city of Santiago de Chile, taking into account for its description the (discursive, lexical, writing and communicative) competence that speakers of such language possess, as well as those functional spaces in which its use was observed. Additionally, this study attempts to account for the social representations speakers have about their language. To this end, a quantitative-qualitative methodological perspective was adopted, which involved the application of a survey and the carrying out of semistructured interviews to urban mapuche, participant observation in urban indigenous associations and the access to secondary sources of information.