The Semiotic Constitution of Kamsá Ritual Language

Abstract

Recent studies of socially situated ways of speaking have reflected a growing uneasiness with the tidy dichotomies (for example, formal/informal, polite/casual) that have informed sociolinguistic inquiries in the past. The ritual language of the Kamsa indigenous community of Andean Colombia presents a serious challenge to these familiar conceptual molds. In elaborating a semiotic constitution for this speech variety, I articulate a model founded on three interrelated variables - accessibility, formalization, and efficacy - that may prove relevant to the discussion of ritual and ceremonial languages elsewhere.