| Many languages in today's world are endangered. One of these languages is Quechua, which has received considerable attention in recent decades from linguists, language planners, policy makers and speech communities themselves regarding whether and how it should be maintained or revitalized. The High Academy of the Quechua Language (HAQL) in Cuzco, Peru is the dominant language academy seeking to preserve this language. Historically, language academies have served functions of corpus and status planning. The academies of less widely spoken languages have sometimes also entered the arena of acquisition planning. This has been the case with the HAQL.;In this work, I investigate to what extent the HAQL has played a role in language planning and revitalization efforts for Quechua in the Andean region. I studied the HAQL to establish its positions, attitudes, ideologies and practices in conservation and promotion efforts for Quechua and to determine whether those efforts have benefited or hindered the development of the language.;Ultimately, I determined that while the HAQL is active in a number of ways in all three areas of language planning, it has not had the positive impact it could have had. Perhaps the principal reasons are the lack of funding with which it constantly struggles, the lack of training in language policy and planning foundations in order to carry out its objectives in a systematic and coherent way, and the strong ideological views of its members which have a tendency to alienate people and groups who could have been potential collaborators.;Finally, I suggest several ways the HAQL may improve its efforts, and its relations with other language planning organizations. However, the findings of my study have implications beyond the Quechua language. Lessons learned from the successes and failures of the Academy can help organizations in other countries that may also be attempting to maintain indigenous languages to avoid pitfalls or to plan more effectively from the beginning. |
