Linguistic ideologies of authenticity and commoditization: the case of the «rescue» of the Muchik language in northern Peru

In this paper, the case of the «rescue» of the extinct Muchik language in the Peruvian region of Lambayeque is discursively analyzed. My proposal is that two linguistic ideologies have been configured in the attempt to recover the language. The first is the ideology of authenticity, according to which this language is represented as the legitimate language of the current descendants of the legendary Mochicas and that it is necessary to bring it back from the past to recover the essence of the Muchik people. The second is the ideology of commoditization, which instrumentalizes this language as an ethno-commodity by conceiving it as an attractive cultural asset for tourist consumption. This research is theoretically framed within sociocultural linguistics and social constructionism. It has followed a qualitative methodology, with an interpretative approach, and has used discourse analysis as the main tool for data analysis.