Raciolinguistic Cacophony and Linguistic Abundance: An Ethnography of Uchinaaguchi Language Socialization at Two After-school Care Programs

This thesis analyzes the challenges and strategies of language reclamation at two after-school childcare programs that teach Uchinaaguchi, an Indigenous Ryukyuan language. Entrenched beliefs about language and race are one obstacle to achieving reclamation efforts. To contextualize this challenge and linguistic modernity in Ryukyu, I analyze Okinawan newspaper discourse from the late Meiji Period (1868-1912) to the present day. Building upon theorizations of raciolinguistic enregisterment, I introduce the concept of raciolinguistic cacophony: disparate and layered efforts to tether language and race ideologically within a particular population. Next, I examine some ways in which raciolinguistic cacophony clashes with reclamation efforts within day-to-day interactions at the programs: race as contextualization clue, quotidian reframing of linguistic discrimination, and usage of varied linguistic labels pointing to disparate language ontologies. Finally, I demonstrate that raciolinguistic cacophony is challenged through “linguistic abundance,” an optimistic pedagogical stance that cultivates decolonial indexicalities, rather than merely linguistic proficiency. All in all, I argue that these programs are emergent sites for socializing Indigenous, transnational Ryukyuan subjectivities.