Indigenous Identity Post-Linguicide: A study among the Pijao of Central Coyaima, Colombia

The Pijao are a Colombian indigenous group that lost their language due to Colombia’s pre-1991 language policy. This thesis explores how the Pijao community in central Coyaima manage their identities as both Pijao and indigenous people after language death. In and around the community, the Pijao express their indigeneity through ethnically indexed phonetic items but there is not enough evidence for a Pijao ethnolect. Outside the community the Pijao express their indigeneity through the invocation of an indigenous chronotope via selective use of honorifics and lexical items. As such, the thesis argues against linguistic essentialism for indigeneity.