Incursiones de la lengua quechua en el ecosistema digital

The research we present studies the use of the Quechua language in digital social networks Facebook and WhatsApp by young bilingual high school students, speakers of Quechua and Spanish, who attend the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th grades of secondary level in public schools of communities and intermediate population centers in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The conditions of use of digital social networks may indeed represent a new risk scenario for minority languages or a potential for revitalization. The study bases its epistemological perspective on the complementarity of socio-ecological and ecolinguistic theories in the context of the emerging sociolinguistics of cyberspace. Among the main results of the research, it emerges that the two digital social networks show a limited use of the Quechua language and reserved for intimate circles, close people, reduced themes and specific functions. The main reasons that limit the use of this language in the two networks are the stigmatization of the socio-cultural environment towards the language, the subjectivities of young people as to its use and its user-friendliness, as well as the difficulty of writing it on electronic devices. Despite the aforementioned restrictions, the Quechua language is inscribed in cyberspace through these social networks and the Internet in general, thanks to the will and commitment of its speakers, who, taking advantage of these digital resources, can systematically extend the areas of use of this language. In other words, young people take advantage of the possibilities offered by social networks to use the Quechua language, among others, and thus strengthen it. These networks show an intuitive and progressive writing of Quechua, which ranges from single words to complete and complex texts, thus reflecting its entry into digital literacy. The study also reports on the presence of Quechua-Spanish translanguage as a bilingual discursive strategy, with significant communicational benefits for young bilinguals and for the vitality of the minority language in the digital ecosystem.