Ideophone Humor: The Enregisterment of a Stereotype and Its Inversion

Abstract

This case study shows how speech play and verbal art mediate the transformation of pejorative stereotypes into alternative representations of Indigenous (Naso) identities for sociopolitical commentary. Ideophones become emblematic of the rube character and are enregistered as such through colonial organs such as national public education. Public education and other systems of structural power instill the ideological contrast between nonrepresentational and representational: ideophones are placed in opposition to abstract, arbitrary symbols, just like “primitive” Naso identity is hegemonically placed in opposition to “civilized” Spanish identity. Colonial ideologization places the “rube” character in the past, incongruent with modern representation, and indexes this character through ideophonic signs. However, Naso individuals play on the ideophone stereotype through subversive inverted mockery; they create alternative interpretations of subjects in order to form social solidarity and alignment with other Nasos.

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