performing and positioning orthography in peruvian cmc

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

Performing and Positioning Orthographyin Peruvian CMC

Michele Back

University of California, Riverside

Miguel Zepeda

California State University, San Bernardino

Using positioning theory and notions of stylization and performance, we examine alternativeorthographies posted in Spanish on a Peruvian radio station’s website. These posts were reactionsto a published photo of Peruvian indigenous congresswoman Hilaria Supa’s orthographic errors innotes she took during a congressional meeting. Contrary to our original assumptions, we find thatcommenters who used Spanish CMC orthography were less likely to support Hilaria Supa’s ownQuechua-influenced orthography, while commenters using a hyper-normative Spanish orthographywere more supportive of Supa. We discuss possible reasons for this contradiction, with findings thatcontribute to a growing body of literature on CMC in non-English speaking environments andsuggest new beliefs regarding the use of nonstandard Spanish orthographies in asynchronous CMCenvironments.

Key words: Spanish, Quechua, orthography, performance, online forums, asynchronous

doi:10.1111/jcc4.12004

Introduction

The intersection of computer mediated communication (CMC) and standard Spanish orthographyhas become a major point of controversy among advocates of the Spanish language. Because Spanishorthography has traditionally been perceived as more phonetically based and therefore ‘‘easier’’ tolearn (compared to, say, French or English; Benjamin & Butt, 1994), the increasing popularity ofalternative orthographies in Spanish CMC has caused alarm among some members of the academicelite. Although research has shown that CMC alterations in orthography—what Anis (2007) and othersterm ‘‘neography’’—do not lead to alterations in other, more traditional written registers (cf. Gomez,2007, Varnhangen, McCall, Figueredo, Sadler et al., 2009), many Spanish-speaking academics continueto look unfavorably upon CMC orthographies for fear that other modes of communication may bedenigrated (Fernandez, 2008).

This misperception may be due in part to a failure to recognize some forms of CMC as conversation-like, rather than exclusively written modalities. Research on both synchronous and asynchronous CMChas highlighted its relationship to both oral and written expression, with varying conclusions. Herring(2010) noted that several recent studies have shown CMC as ‘‘meaningfully conversation-like, regardlessof synchronicity’’ (p. 2); this observation has been supported by studies such as Myers (2010). Belda

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(2002) hinted at the oral nature of CMC by commenting on its ‘‘dialogic appearance’’ (p. 47).1 Danet(2001) took a more nuanced standpoint by discussing both the reduced and enhanced nature of digitalwriting in relation to speech and printed writing. In her words, ‘‘The curious condition of being bothdoubly attenuated and doubly enhanced means that typed online communication lies between speechand writing, yet is neither’’ (p. 12). Anis (2007) positioned himself at the other end of the spectrum,warning that ‘‘the adoption of oral features in CMC is often overestimated,’’ though his own researchcontained several examples of phonetic-related alternation in alternative French orthographies (p. 88).We conclude from these works that while CMC may not exactly lie on a continuum between oral andwritten expression, it does contain enough elements of both to merit discussion with respect to its oral-like components. In the words of Thorne (2003), ‘‘all artifacts, including Internet communication tools,are imbued with characteristics that illustrate the intersection of histories of use with the contingenciesof emergent practice’’ (pp. 40–41). In our case, the history of phonetic adaptation in Spanish intersectswith the emergent practice of CMC.

Therefore, our goals in this article are first to put forth a typology of Spanish CMC orthography,which we define as a non-standard orthography that is used in most synchronous and certainasynchronous CMC environments. Second, we examine how Spanish CMC, standard, and whatwe term hyper-normative orthographies were used in a performative manner in one asynchronousenvironment to index and position a variety of affiliations, identities, and notions of expertise. Becauseasynchronous Spanish CMC typically uses standard orthography, we show how the performance ofconflicting orthographies led certain commenters to index beliefs surrounding not only Spanish CMC,but also Peruvian notions of education and knowledge. Our findings contribute to a growing body ofliterature on CMC in non-English speaking environments and suggest new beliefs regarding the use ofnonstandard Spanish orthographies in asynchronous CMC environments.

Theoretical framework and method of analysis

For our theoretical framework we take as a first point of departure Bauman’s (1975, 1987, 2000) andBauman and Brigg’s (1990) theories of performance, defined as a ‘‘specially marked way of speaking’’that opens itself up to audience scrutiny (Bauman, 1987, p. 8). Although Bauman originally examinedthe notion of performance as it pertained to verbal art and expression, we and others (e.g., Danet &Herring, 2007) find that this notion can also be applied to both synchronous and asynchronous CMC,as this modality often paves the way for performance to take place. First, commenter anonymity meansthat some interlocutors may express themselves more creatively—one of Bauman’s (1975) essentialelements of performance. Belda (2002) discussed how a CMC context often leads to a ‘‘disinhibition onthe part of the user, who feels secure in anonymity’’ (p. 46). Danet (2001) also noted ‘‘because identityis disguised, participants enjoy reduced accountability for their actions, and can engage in ‘pretend’ or‘make-believe’ behavior of all kinds’’ (p. 8). North (2007) referred to this behavior as carnivalesquein nature, employing ‘‘playful and often ribald discourse’’ (p. 539). Myers (2010) also hinted at theperformative nature of asynchronous CMC in his analysis of blog discussions, noting that commenterson the blogs in his sample were ‘‘constantly concerned with self-presentation’’ (p. 264).

At the same time, the act of publishing one’s comments on a public forum both forces theinterlocutor to examine and justify their own communicative competence, as well as leave themselvesopen to ‘‘audience members’’ (in this case, other commenters’) reactions and evaluations to theircomments. As Bauman and Briggs (1990) stated, ‘‘Performance puts the act of speaking on display[ . . . ] objectifies it, lifts it to a degree from its interactional setting and opens it to scrutiny by anaudience’’ (p. 73), in this way requiring a certain ‘‘assumption of responsibility to an audience for adisplay of communicative competence’’ (Bauman, 1975, p. 293).2

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Performance in a CMC context is often indexed by stylized form of writing. Stylization, as definedby Rampton (2009), is ‘‘reflexive communicative action’’ demonstrated by ‘‘specially marked and oftenexaggerated representations of languages, dialects and styles’’ that are not normally produced by theseindividuals (p. 149). Stylization is also an important element of Coupland’s (2007) seven dimensions ofperformance, particularly the focuses on form, relations and achievement, where performers will givespecial consideration to style and enact these styles for specific groups and with specific stakes in mind.Given the non-habitual nature of these practices, stylization can ‘‘invite attention to creative agencyin language use’’ and even ‘‘contribute to the denaturalization of hegemonic language ideologies’’(Rampton, 2009, p. 149).

In our data we see evidence of a simultaneous denaturalization and reinforcement of these ideologiesthrough the performance of two styles of writing: Spanish CMC and hyper-normative orthographiesand registers. These two styles appear to be destined for different audiences and index different stakes.To more closely examine these distinct performances, we turn to Davies and Harre’s (1990) notionof positioning, defined by Howie and Peters (1996) as ‘‘a discursive practice in which persons locatethemselves and others in conversations’’ (p. 52). Acts of positioning, such as those demonstrated by theuse of alternative orthographies or registers, show ‘‘how each conversant conceives of themselves andof the other participants’’ (Davies & Harre, 1990, p. 48). Davies and Harre also note that positioningis both interactive and reflexive; in other words, interlocutors can both jointly position each other(interactive) as well as themselves (reflexive).3 For this reason, positioning often results in conflictinginteractions as interlocutors question how other participants have positioned them. Moreover, in aCMC context the absence of more personal cues leaves vulnerable to positioning those items that areirrelevant to a face-to-face context, such as orthographic competence. As Walther (1996) stated, ‘‘theoverreliance on minimal cues is more pronounced when participants have no physical exposure to oneanother, as in CMC’’ (p. 18).

In this article we take a discursive psychological approach to positioning, as suggested by Korobov(2010). That is, we examine how acts of positioning index certain ideologies, rather than whether ornot these acts are in themselves reflective of greater social norms. We view the performance of certainorthographies and registers as acts of positioning that participants employ in order to make theirpractices ‘‘appear (or not appear) normative or rule-governed’’ (Korobov, 2010, p. 267). In our corpusof 435 online comments we examine how certain commenters index distinct notions of ‘‘proper’’ or‘‘correct’’ orthography in a CMC context, as well as how some of these commenters perform theseorthographies in a stylized manner in order to enhance their and their audience’s experience.

We originally analyzed this data using a constructivist grounded theory method (Charmaz, 2006).That is, although we were aware of the notions of performance and positioning prior to analyzing thedata, we did not return to this as a theoretical framework until we had grouped the data into relevantthemes and categories. It was only after examining these groupings that the concepts of performanceand positioning became relevant. Before beginning this analysis we offer some background informationon the event that led to these postings.

Participants and Background

On April 23, 2009, the Peruvian newspaper Correo published on their front page a close-up photoof indigenous congresswoman Hilaria Supa taking notes during a congressional meeting that hadoccurred several days prior (Figure 1).4 A portion of the photo was enlarged to show Supa’s notes,which contained several orthographic errors in Spanish.5 The photo was accompanied by the title‘‘¡Que nivel!’’ (what a level), and the subtitle ‘‘Urge Coquito para Congresista Supa’’ (Congresswoman


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Figure 1 Detail of Correo’s front page, April 23, 2009

Supa needs a Coquito; a Peruvian literacy book for children). The accompanying article, written byCorreo editor Aldo Mariategui, questioned Supa’s capacity for a congressional position, adding that herlegislative work had up that point been ‘‘flojo’’ (lazy).

The picture and accompanying editorial energized what was already an ongoing debate amongPeru’s elite regarding Supa’s qualifications for Congress. Professors in the Linguistics section of Lima,Peru’s prestigious Catholic University published a communique in support of Supa, noting that, as abilingual in Quechua and Spanish, Supa used orthography typical of a Quechua learner of Spanish, andthat this did not indicate a lack of intelligence or capacity on her part. Among journalists, politicians,and the general public, the debate on the Hilaria Supa event clustered around two camps, which alliedthemselves with either Mariategui’s or the Catholic University’s views on Supa.

As the debate over Supa’s orthography and qualifications for Congress played out over the followingweek on radio and television programs, readers of Correo and other Peruvian media were expressingtheir own opinions through comments on these media’s web sites. One web site in particular, for


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Table 1 Quechua orthographies in three Peruvian varieties

Ayacucho Cuzco Southern Quechua Translation

Upyay uhyay upyay ‘‘to drink’’Utqa usqha utqha ‘‘fast’’Llamkay llank’ay llamk’ay ‘‘to work’’Nuqanchik nuqanchis nuqanchik ‘‘we (inclusive)’’-chka- -chka- -sha- (progressive infix)Punchaw p’unchay p’unchaw ‘‘day’’

(Adapted from Cerron-Palomino, 1994)

Table 2 Comparison of Supa’s orthography to standard Spanish orthography

Supa’s orthography Standard Spanish orthography (translation)

rePoBleca Republica (republic)discotio discutio (discussed)ovo hubo (there was)vernes viernes (Friday)

Peru’s national radio station RPP (Radio Programas del Peru), registered an extremely high amountof comments to their online reports on the event. Altogether, 435 comments were posted on the sitewithin 36 hours in response to four stories about Hilaria Supa and the Correo editorial, compared to15–40 comments per story for other news items during the same time period.

Hilaria Supa’s first language is Quechua, which is spoken in her home department of Cuzco andseveral other highland areas of Peru, as well as several other Andean countries. Quechua is characterizedby its myriad varieties—most scholars believe it is more accurate to refer to Quechua as a familyof languages (King & Hornberger, 2004)—and its relatively recent written culture. The combinationof different varieties and its history as an oral language has led to several different orthographicinterpretations of the language (see Table 1). Add to this Supa’s status as a self-taught learner ofSpanish, and the difficulty of maintaining a standard Spanish orthography becomes clear. As stated inthe communique published by the Catholic University, Supa’s orthography in Spanish shows elementsindicative of a Quechua native speaker, including the substitution of <o> for and <e> for. The phonemes represented by these letters are much more flexible in Quechua from an acousticstandpoint, showing a tendency to overlap in some instances (cf. Perez, Acurio & Bendezu, 2008; seeTable 2).

Sociolinguistically speaking, Quechua and its speakers exist in a stigmatized state relative to nativeSpanish speakers in Peru (Hornberger, 1997). Though Quechua has official status, along with otherindigenous languages in Peru, in practice Spanish is the preferred, prestige language for communicationin politics and the media. Representation of Peru’s indigenous peoples in congress is small but growing,with 15 of the 120 members of congress identifying themselves as indigenous in 2010, accordingto the website of the Grupo Parlamentario Indígena del Peru (Indigenous Parliamentary Group ofPeru). Nevertheless, in an official context the use of languages other than Spanish is frowned upon;for example, in 2006 Supa and her indigenous colleague Maria Sumire received criticism from theirSpanish-speaking counterparts for taking the oath of office in Quechua.


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Even among native speakers of Spanish, standard Spanish orthography can be troublesome,especially in a CMC context. Yus (2002) noted the tendency to save time on the keyboard by avoidingsuch standard elements as written accent marks, or substituting <k> or <q> for words that require<qu>. Negron (2009) termed this type of substitution ‘‘deviant Spanish,’’ explaining that ‘‘they aredeviant in the sense of diverging from standard Spanish orthography, but in many ways they arequite ordinary [ . . . ] the use of some deviant spellings suggests a need for speed and efficiency’’ (p.11). Mayans (2002) examined how this need for efficiency has recently evolved into a more acceptedSpanish orthography for the purposes of CMC, stating that ‘‘there exists a very high voluntary naturein most user normative ‘non-corrections’ [ . . . ] most chat users want to show that they write ‘badly’’’ (p.110–112, our emphasis).

Thus, in this article we examine what happened when a relatively established alternative orthographysuch as Spanish CMC came into contact with a discussion on nonstandard orthography. Contrary toour assumptions that commenters would be more careful with their own orthographies when writingon this topic, we discovered that many of those who used Spanish CMC orthography were in factcritical of Supa’s own Quechua-influenced Spanish orthography, while those in support of Supa used anormative or hyper-normative Spanish orthography. In the paragraphs below we analyze some of thesecomments as performative acts of positioning to shed some light on this apparent contradiction.

Typology of Spanish CMC and Results

The use of alternative orthographies in Spanish CMC seems to be uniformly present in differentvarieties of the language. Several studies, regardless of the country where the data was collected (Belda,2002; Mayans, 2002; and Yus, 2002), as well as our data from Peruvian users, show that SpanishCMC orthography follows similar patterns. There have even been recent attempts at standardization,including an online dictionary of popular abbreviations in CMC Spanish for text messaging purposes.Like Anis (2007), we caution that our own typology reflects ‘‘not a standard, but a set of procedures’’that users may or may not adopt when writing in a CMC context (p. 88). We can group these proceduresinto two major categories: phonetic simplification through the substitution of certain graphemes, andthe inversion of graphemes. Examples of these categories and other phenomena are listed below inTable 3.

As Belda (2002), Mayans (2002), and Yus (2002) pointed out, the main reason for using thesecharacteristics is to save time when writing. However, we found that the inclusion of these elements inan online discussion about orthography merited its own analysis. The asynchronous nature of posting acomment in an online forum means that commenters have the option of editing their comments beforeposting; Anis (2007) stated that ‘‘neography is marginal’’ in this environment in a French context (p.90), while Nishimura (2007) noted that ‘‘concerns about who reads the messages [ . . . ] may influence[electronic bulletin board] message contributors and their discourse’’ (p. 165). Therefore, we mightassume that those who opted for Spanish CMC orthography in our data either adopted it for reasons ofexpediency in publishing their message, or may have used this orthography for strategic or performativereasons.

The majority of posted comments on the RPP web site used standard Spanish orthography, albeitusually without written accent marks, which again may have been due to reasons of expediency or theuse of a non-Spanish keyboard. Some comments had spelling errors that were not related to CMC,which we do not examine except with respect to the critiques of these comments. Below, we examine thefollowing categories; those comments that used Spanish CMC orthography in a consistent or extrememanner; those comments that used a hyper-normative Spanish orthography to respond to and critique


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Table 3 Typology of Spanish CMC orthography

Graphemes substituted or inverted Allophone Represented Source

<q> or <k> for ‘que’ or ‘qu-’ [k] Our data; Yus, 2002, Stewart,1999; Belda, 2002

<y> for <ll> [�] Our dataInversion <s>, <c>, <z> [s] Our data; Belda, 2002Inversion intervocalic <v> [ß] Our data; Belda, 2002Inversion of <j> <g> [x] Our dataElongation/extension of

exclamation points, vowels, etc.Our data; Yus, 2002

No written accent marks Our data; Mayans, 2002

CMC orthography comments or those with minor spelling mistakes; and those comments that usednon-standard orthography, but were at the same time atypical of Spanish CMC orthography.

Use of Spanish CMC orthography

Of the comments using Spanish CMC orthography, the most common alternative spelling was thesubstitution of the graphemes <q> or <k> for the word ‘‘que’’ (that, what or who). Commenter Sajínprovided an example:

Por favor! yo tengo dere[c]ho a que me represente alguien q [que] minimamente sepaesc[r]ibir! SAJIN| 2009-04-24 | 08:31:37

Please! I have the right to be represented by someone who at least knows how to write!6

For proponents of standard Spanish orthography, Sajin’s comment, with its substitution of ‘‘q’’ for‘‘que,’’ could be seen as ironic in its assertion that Sajin be represented by ‘‘someone who at least knowshow to write.’’ We note that this seeming obliviousness to the potential audience scrutiny mentionedby Nishimura (2007) is present in most of the comments that use CMC orthography, such as JuankA’scomment below:

Humillacion . . . ?? la unica humillacion aki [aquí] y con el respeto ke [que] se merece la sra.congresista, es ke [que] sepa poco o nada de redacccion.... y no vengan con ke [que] esto es racismoo discriminacion, conozco gente muy humilde, pero culta.... asi ke [que] seNores a ponerse arepasar las reglas de ortografia . . . estamos en democracia y el diario puede publicar sin omisionalguna. �

JuankA| 2009-04-23 | 20:50:55

Humiliation? The only humiliation here, and with the respect that the congresswoman deserves, is thatshe knows little or nothing about writing, and don’t say that’s racism or discrimination, I know veryhumble, but educated people . . . so sirs go review your spelling rules, we are in a democracy and thepaper can publish without any omission.


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In the above example JuankA consistently used the letter ‘‘k’’ to replace the standard Spanish‘‘qu’’ while asserting, like Sajin, that Supa ‘‘knows little or nothing about writing.’’ Both DeBruyne(1995) and Stewart (1999) noted the use of ‘‘k’’ in anti-establishment discourse, suggesting that its usemay connote a rejection of mainstream values. Sajín and JuankA’s substitution of nonstandard lettersfor the standard ‘‘qu’’ indexed a reflexive positioning that privileges the knowledge of Spanish CMCorthography over any possible retribution for their choice of a nonstandard form. Davies and Harre(1990) noted, ‘‘once having taken up a particular position as one’s own, a person inevitably sees theworld from the vantage point of that position’’ (p. 46). The commenters above positioned themselvesas knowledgeable users of Spanish CMC orthography, and may even have strategically performed ananti-establishment Spanish CMC identity, while at the same time asserting that Supa’s own orthographyindicated a lack of education.

We found more extreme examples of Spanish CMC orthography beyond the ‘‘k’’/‘‘qu’’ substitution.PajaBrava’s comment was particularly notable:

Con ezte [este] insidente no ce [se] esta mazillando [masillando] al idioma quechua idioma ofisial[oficial] del peru, lo ke [que] ce [se] esta cuestionando es el nibel [nivel] cultural de mamacha supa.es nuestra realidad, tenemos los congrecistas [congresistas] y el precidente [presidente] quemerezemos [merecemos] . . . de acuerdo que haya un filtro y esto deve [debe] ser la educasion[educacion]. un analfaveto [analfabeto] no puede ser un lejislador [legislador].

PajaBrava | 2009-04-23 | 19:39:20

With this incident we are not slaughtering Quechua, an official language in Peru, what we arequestioning is Mama Supa’s level of culture. It’s our reality, we have the congress members and thepresident that we deserve, of course there should be a filter and that should be education. An illiteratecan’t be a legislator.

In PajaBrava’s comment we see not only the <k>/<qu> substitution but also stylized substitutionsor switches between <s>, <c> and <z> for the voiceless apical-alveolar fricative [s], as well as switchesbetween and <v> for voiced bilabial aspirant [ß] and <j> and <g> for voiceless velar fricative[x]. The consistent replacement of standard graphemes with their non-standard counterparts showsboth creativity and forethought on PajaBrava’s part. The excessiveness of this orthography at first glanceseems to indicate a type of performance; indeed, the nickname PajaBrava, which alludes to a Peruvianslang term for masturbation, suggests that this orthography was a deliberate display. However, withinthis orthography PajaBrava offered a relatively nuanced argument against Hilaria Supa, questioning notonly her ‘‘level of culture’’ but also the lack of an educational ‘‘filter’’ for members of congress. From thisvantage point it could be that, like JuankA, PajaBrava adopted the subject position of one knowledgeablein Spanish CMC orthography and was solely using this orthography to make his argument. In thewords of Davies and Harre (1990), ‘‘Participants [ . . . ] may simply regard their words as ‘the way onetalks’ on this sort of occasion’’ (p. 49, their emphasis). Regardless of PajaBrava’s own intentions, whichare decidedly ambiguous, we will show below that the notion of how one talks, or writes, during thisevent was interpreted in a different way by other commenters, leaving some commenters, PajaBravaincluded, to be repositioned by others as uneducated.

Most of the examples that showed a more extreme type of Spanish CMC orthography were alsoanti-Supa in content. Those commenters who were supportive of Supa either used CMC orthographyto a much lower degree (e.g., only using <q> for ‘qu-’ or ‘que’), or, more interestingly, changed tostandard Spanish orthography in later comments. An example of the latter is Pepino, who began his


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comments using Spanish CMC orthography but later changed to standard orthography, as seen in histwo comments below:

Me parese [parece] una tomteria [tontería] eztar [estar] comemtando [comentando] esto.... lo queinporta [importa] son las ideas . . . al final todos somos el resultado de la edukacion [educacion] yoportunidades que tubimos [tuvimos] [ . . . ] que sigan los prejuicios!!

Pepino | 2009-04-23 | 14:54:16

I think it’s stupid to be commenting on this . . . what is important are ideas, at the end we are all theresult of the education and opportunities we had [ . . . ]keep the prejudices coming!

El congreso no es una escuelita de ortografia.... si lo fuera, un criterio de evaluacion seria saber leery escribir . . . y no lo son.... ademas nosotros los elegimos.

Pepino | 2009-04-23 | 14:58:12

Congress isn’t a spelling school . . . if it were, one of the criteria for evaluation would be to know how toread and write . . . and they don’t . . . and besides, we elected them.

In Pepino’s first comment he used the same inversions of graphemes as PajaBrava, as well as someswitches between the nasals <m> and <n>, which have not been mentioned in previous literaturebut that we have witnessed in some informal orthography in Andean Peru as well as in Supa’s ownnotes. Like PajaBrava, Pepino offered a fairly nuanced critique of the Supa situation, arguing, ‘‘We areall the result of the education we had.’’ Pepino’s argument, ‘‘what is important are the ideas,’’ writtenin non-standard orthography, showed elements of performativity as he demonstrated the importanceof ideas compared to how they might be rendered through non-standard orthography.

Four minutes later, however, Pepino modified his orthography, showing a reflexive positioningas knowledgeable of standard Spanish orthography, versus an alliance to the CMC community. Hissubsequent comments (not transcribed here) continued this reflexive positioning. Although we canonly speculate on the reasons for this change in orthography, it could be that Pepino noticed othersupporters of Supa using standard orthography, and decided to align himself orthographically as well asideologically to these commenters. He may have also noticed the critiques of CMC orthographies andspelling errors that were beginning to appear on the forum, and changed his own orthography in orderto avoid these critiques. In the section below we examine these critiques, many of which were renderedin a performed, hyper-normative orthography.

Hyper-normative Spanish orthography

Although many commenters using Spanish CMC orthography were not taken to task for this usage,there were several challenges that merit discussion, especially with respect to the interactive positioningsthat occurred as a result. A commenter named TERMINATOR, for example, responded to PajaBrava’scomment from the previous section with the following:

Tu estas peor que la supa!!!!!!!!!! . . . jajajaja!!!!!!!!TERMINATOR | 2009-04-23 | 20:45:21

You are worse than that Supa! hahahaha!

In this comment we see TERMINATOR’s own use of CMC (exaggeration of exclamation marks andthe Spanish onomatopoetic symbols for laughter) to ridicule PajaBrava’s comment. Though PajaBrava


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may have positioned himself as knowledgeable enough in Spanish CMC to offer an argument againstSupa using that type of discourse, TERMINATOR repositioned PajaBrava’s comment as comingfrom someone uneducated, comparing PajaBrava unfavorably to Supa. As Davies and Harre (1990)noted, ‘‘One’s beliefs about the sorts of persons, including oneself, who are engaged in a conversationare central to how one understands what has been said’’ (p. 58). In this example TERMINATORindexed PajaBrava’s orthography, rather than the content of his comment, in order to position him asuneducated.

Shortly thereafter, commenter Sebaspaz stepped into the exchange to offer his own admonition ofTERMINATOR’s writing skills:

¡eh! terminator, ¡los signos de admiracion e interrogacion de nuestro idioma castellano van en elinicio y termino de la oracion!

Sebaspaz |2009-04-24 | 10:41:48

Hey! terminator, exclamation points and question marks in our Spanish language go at the beginningand end of the sentence!

With this comment Sebaspaz offered a repositioning of TERMINATOR’s stance as someone capableof critiquing PajaBrava’s CMC orthography. Sebaspaz carefully used written accents, as well as openingand closing exclamation points—standard in Spanish orthography, yet rarely used in any Spanishonline environment—to call into question TERMINATOR’s own abilities in their common language.The brief rebuke, although it did little to alter TERMINATOR’s own performance in subsequentcomments, indexed this particular performance as uneducated, as well as diminished TERMINATOR’soriginal positioning of PajaBrava as ‘‘worse than Supa.’’

We see a similar trend in an exchange between commenters nikky and JuanK. Nikky’s commentsadopted some elements of Spanish CMC orthography, such as the excessive use of exclamation marksand the sole use of uppercase letters:

AL CAMPO A TRABAJAR CON PICO Y LAMPA INDIGENA BRUTA, QUE DIABLOS HACES EN EL CONGRESO, CARAJO!!!!!

QUE VERGUENZA EL NIVEL DEL CONGRESO!!!!! CAMBIEN ESA CONSTITUCION QUE HACE QUEDAR EN RIDICULO AL

PAIS, QUE VERGUENZA TENER ESA INDIGENA REPRESENTANDO QUE? INDIA APESTOZA!!!

nikky | 2009-04-25 | 12:42:16

To the countryside to work with a pick and shovel stupid Indian, what the hell are you doing inCongress, shit!!!! The level of Congress is an embarrassment!!! Change the constitution so this countrydoesn’t look so ridiculous, what an embarrassment to have this Indian representing what? Stincy [sic]Indian!

Commenter JuanK responded with a careful critique in hyper-normative Spanish:

Senor experto en el idioma castellano, culto, inteligente y prosapio humano, unas pequenasobservaciones a vuestro tan florido lexico 1. las palabras deben ser escritas en minusculas ymayusculas. es mala educacion escribir todo en mayuscula. 2. la rae establece claramente quelas palabras deben ser tildadas cuando así lo ameriten, ya sea en minusculas o mayusculas. 3. enel castellano, los signos de interrogacion y admiracion, se cierran y se abren. mantener abiertosestos signos, como vuestra merced pretende, denotan ciertos gustos literarios. 4. no se escribe‘‘apestoza’’ sino ‘‘apestosa’’ . . . y por cierto, ¿como sabe que es apestosa?

JuanK |2009-04-26 | 11:02:33


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Mr. Expert in the Spanish language, cultured, intelligent human being of good lineage, a few smallobservations on thy flowery lexicon: 1. words must be written in upper and lower case, it is a sign of badeducation to write everything in upper case. 2. the RAE [Royal Academy of the Spanish Language]clearly establishes that words must have written accent marks as merited, whether they be in upper orlower case. 3. in Spanish, exclamation points and question marks close and open. Maintaining thesesigns open, as your mercy pretends, denotes certain literary tastes. 4. it is not written ‘‘apestoza’’[stinky] but ‘‘apestosa’’ . . . and, of course, how do you know she is stinky?

In his response, JuanK showed a stylized spelling and lexicon, as well as an excessively formaland flourished register. Instead of indexing an affiliation with CMC users—an affiliation that hisnickname ‘‘JuanK,’’ a phonetic rendering of the Spanish nickname JuanCa [Juan Carlos], indicates—heperformed an eloquent, educated response, in this way drawing the focus to the orthography in nikki’scomment, rather than the content. In reflexively positioning himself as educated, JuanK relegatednikky’s outraged comment to a stylistic exercise, rendering whatever point nikky was trying to makeinvalid in the face of such ‘‘flowery lexicon.’’ His excessive formality was distinctly ironic in tone; thisirony, similar to the commenters in Myers (2010), ‘‘dramatizes an opposing position to undermine it’’(p. 273).

Like Pepino’s first use of nonstandard orthography to illustrate ‘‘what is important are the ideas,’’JuanK’s use of hyper-normative Spanish orthography and register illustrate how some commenters usedthe forum for ‘‘expressive-creative positioning’’ (Walker, 2009). Further examples of this expressionand creativity that do not follow normative or CMC Spanish orthographies are in the followingsection.

Non-standard, non-CMC orthography

A few comments in the Supa forums show a use of non-standard Spanish that does not correspond withthe CMC typology. Aragorn, for example, indexed Hilaria Supa’s own orthography in his comment:

A supa se le critica su mala ortografia y baja produccion legislativa ¡¡que se aguante!!! es congresistay debe rendir cuentas de sus defectos y virtudes, como todos, ¿hay que tolerarla por ser mamachaignorante?? ¡¡jostisia papay!!!�

aragorn |�2009-04-24 | 11:33:42

They critique Supa’s bad spelling and low legislative production, deal with it! she’s a congresswomanand she should take account of her defects and virtues, like everyone, do we have to tolerate her for beingan ignorant Indian woman? ‘‘Justice, my father’’!

Aragorn’s use of non-standard spelling in ‘‘jostisia papay’’ was most likely a mocking performanceof Supa’s own orthography. The substitution of the grapheme <o> for in ‘‘jostisia’’ (justicia)alluded to a Quechua-influenced pronunciation, while the word ‘‘papay’’ added the Quechua possessivesuffix –y to the Spanish word ‘‘papa,’’ suggesting an imaginary plea by Supa to her elders. This useof ‘‘mock Quechua,’’ similar to Hill’s (1995, 1998) and Barrett’s (2006) research on ‘‘mock Spanish,’’showed a disregard for producing an utterance in correct Quechua (the Quechua word for fatheris ‘‘tayta’’), thus indexing certain stereotypes of Quechua speakers in Peru as incapable of speakingstandard Spanish.


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Other nonstandard spellings in the comments, such as the following by TEMPLARIO, hinted at themore politicized understory of Quechua’s position in Peru:

Hilaria supa es analfabeta del queswa [quechua ] y del castellano del vasto territorio deltawantinsvyv [tawantinsuyo] inka [inca] . . .

TEMPLARIO | 2009-04-24 | 08:43:56

Hilaria Supa is illiterate in the Quechua and in the Spanish of this vast Inca territory of the fourconjoined points . . .

TEMPLARIO used the Supa event to remind his fellow commenters about Tawantinsuyo, thefour main cities that together surround the ancient Inca empire. His nonstandard spellings of‘‘quechua,’’ ‘‘tawantinsuyo’’ and ‘‘inca’’ did not reference Spanish CMC but rather the fact thatQuechua, traditionally an oral language, is subject to varied interpretations of its own orthography(Cerron-Palomino, 2004; Weber, 1998). TEMPLARIO thus positioned himself as one knowledgeableof Quechua’s history in Peru, performing an alternative orthography while at the same time positioningSupa as less knowledgeable of these variants.

In the above comments we see stylized performances of Spanish CMC and hyper-normativeorthography, as well as other alternative orthographies that do not appear to index either CMC or atraditionally educated community. In the discussion to follow we pay closer attention to what beliefs orideologies these performances might further index.

Discussion

The use of alternative orthographies and metalinguistic critique in comments about the Hilaria Supastory reflects the ongoing debate in the Spanish-speaking world regarding appropriate forms of discoursein a CMC context. The examples of what we term Spanish CMC orthography are notable not onlyin their consistent use of certain alternative spellings, but also in the nuanced arguments containedtherein. Even as commenters such as Sajin, JuankA and PajaBrava argued for a congresswoman whoconsistently follows the norms of orthography, they perhaps inadvertently subverted these argumentsthrough use of Spanish CMC procedures in a public forum. At the same time commenters such asTERMINATOR, SebasPaz and JuanK used differing degrees of standard Spanish orthography to positionthose commenters whose orthographies they deemed inappropriate for the forum as uneducated andtherefore not to be taken seriously. Meanwhile, commenters such as Aragorn and TEMPLARIO exploredalternative, non-CMC orthographies to either mock Supa or index knowledge of marginalized variantsof Quechua. The result is what Davies and Harre (1990) term a ‘‘weaving together’’ of contradictorysubject positions, as the commenters, each coming from a different perception of ‘‘the way one talks’’ inan online forum, both positioned themselves and others on a hierarchy of education according to theirorthographies (p. 59; p. 49). Because a standard Spanish orthography prevailed in these discussions,the presence of alternative orthographies, or even minor misspellings, was enough to jolt certaincommenters into corrective action.

The implications for Spanish CMC and what it means to be educated in Peru cannot necessarilybe generalized, given the specific nature of the topic, but may include the following observations.First, it appears that Spanish CMC is making its entry into what was previously deemed an area forstandard Spanish orthography: that of commenter threads in asynchronous forums. However, thisappears to be true only in a South American context; while commenter threads on news sites suchas Peru’s El Comercio and Argentina’s La Nacion contain several of the examples of Spanish CMC


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orthography discussed above, comments on other Spanish language news sites, such as Spanish paperEl País and Mexican paper El Universal still subscribe to the rules of standard Spanish orthography.Second, and despite the presence of Spanish CMC in these forums, as well as in other venues such asSMS and chat, to be educated in Peru still seems to imply using normative, and even hyper-normative,orthographies. Commenters who were supportive of Hilaria Supa’s capacity as a congresswoman chosetheir orthography carefully, opting overwhelmingly for Spanish norms. At the same time some usersof alternative, non-CMC orthographies indexed an association of Quechua with a lack of educationthrough the use of these orthographies. It appears, therefore, that, at least in the Peru and the Peruviandiaspora represented by this forum, both non-normative Spanish and Quechua is subject to a negativepositioning by those speakers who view themselves as ‘‘educated.’’ A comment by Sebapaz illustratesthis positioning:

Primero lo primero, es racismo (no razismo), y el verbo es coger (no cojer). aclarado eso, no dudode tu capacidad porque hayas escrito mal esas dos palabras, a cualquiera le pasa, yo soy unaverdadera bestia con las tildes, nunca le atino. y mira, así y todo termine mi maestría y estoyhaciendo el doctorado [ . . . ]

Sebaspaz | 2009-04-24 | 09:48:21

First of all, it’s racism (not razism), and the verb is coger [to get] not cojer. Having cleared that up, Idon’t doubt your capacity because you wrote those two words badly, it happens to everyone, I’m terriblewith accent marks, I never get them, and look, even so I finished my masters and am getting mydoctorate [ . . . ]

In this comment Sebaspaz critiqued the orthography of a fellow commenter, offering somecorrections while assuring the commenter that s/he did not think less of him/her for these errors. YetSebaspaz did feel the need not only to make these corrections, but also to index his/her high level ofeducation (‘‘even so I finished my masters and am getting my doctorate’’). This positioning is similarto the comment described above by JuanK, who appealed to a formal register in order to critiquenikky’s comment, as well as other commenters not discussed here, who reference Cervantes and othercultural symbols that index a complete education in Spanish. Interestingly, it is the commenters mostin Supa’s camp who resorted to this type of positioning. In the RPP forums, support for an indigenous,self-taught learner of Spanish apparently means positioning oneself as completely opposite of thatexperience, while those critiquing this support felt able to express themselves in a wider variety ofalternative orthographies.

Conclusion

The photo of Peruvian congresswoman Hilaria Supa’s notes from a congressional meeting generateda flurry of comments in online Peruvian discussions regarding Hilaria Supa’s orthography andqualifications. Through their comments on sites such as rpp.com.pe, commenters not only argued foror against Supa, but also positioned themselves as knowledgeable of CMC orthography and standardSpanish orthography. While most commenters used the latter, several commenters cultivated a SpanishCMC identity through alternative orthographies, even when their comments were against Supa’sown orthographic representations. At the same time, several of these CMC-oriented commenterswere rebuked by their counterparts, some of whom cultivated deliberately formal registers in hyper-normative Spanish orthography, complete with opening exclamation points and written accent marks,both of which are rarely used in Spanish online communication. Moreover, other commenters usedmore strategic versions of Spanish orthography to mock Hilaria Supa’s alternative orthography.


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For most of these commenters, the association between education and standard orthography is stillstrong, even among those who are supportive of Supa. However, Spanish CMC orthography is slowlyencroaching on asynchronous venues, which will continue to generate discussion on whether or notthis orthography poses a threat to normative Spanish in Peru and other Spanish-speaking countries.Regardless of this debate, our data shows that the choice to use standard Spanish orthography, SpanishCMC orthography, or another alternative is an important tool in the performance of particular identitiesand the positioning of one’s self and others on the continua of formal education, CMC knowledge, andideologies of language in Peru. There appears to be a relationship between ideology and orthography,although not the one that we had originally assumed. In future research we will examine further thenotion of education, language ideologies, and racism through a content analysis of the commentsproduced during the Supa event.

Notes

1 All translations from Spanish are ours.2 The notion of performativity in CMC has been analyzed previously, mostly with respect to the use of

humor and language play, in Danet, Ruedenberg-Wright and Rosenbaum-Tamari (1997), Katsunoand Yano (2007), and Mayans (2001), among others.

3 Jaffe (2009), Meyers (2010) and others have discussed these acts of positioning as stance- taking, atheory that incorporates many similar concepts.

4 Hilaria Supa was a congresswoman from Peru’s department of Cuzco from 2006 to 2011.5 A gloss of Supa’s notes, along with a transcription of the notes in standard Spanish orthography and

English translation, is available in Appendix 1.

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About the Authors

Michele Back ([email protected]) is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of California,Riverside’s Department of Hispanic Studies. Her research focuses on the use of minority languagessuch as Quechua in transnational communities and CMC environments. She is currently conductingresearch on ideologies of race, language and education in online discussion forums and on Twitter.

Miguel Zepeda ([email protected]) is pursuing a Master of Arts in Hispanic Literature,Linguisticsand Civilization at the California State University in San Bernardino. His research focuses on thehistorical evolution of Spanish and other Romance languages and the presence of archaic Spanish incontemporary communities.


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Appendix 1: Gloss of Hilaria Supa’s Notes, Transcription in Standard Orthographyand Translation

Jueves De abril – 16 – 2009 Pleno Del Comgreso De la rePoBleca si Discotio lasituasion de BraiOvo Muchos Participasion custo No Presencia Del preme menistro Para subre Brasy subreatentadopindio el pleno. Vernes De abril 17 2009 . . .

Jueves de abril-16-2009-Pleno del congreso de la republica se discutio la situacion de VRAE, hubomucha participacion, costo en la presencia del primer ministro para sobre VRAE sobre atentado pidiendo elpleno. Viernes de abril 17 2009 . . .

Thursday of April 16 2008-meeting of the congress of the republic the VRAE [Apurimac and EneRiver Valleys] situation was discussed there was a great deal of participation the prime minister waspresent asking those present [about the VRAE attack]. Friday of April 17 2009 . . .


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performing and positioning orthography in peruvian cmc

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