Migración y Lenguas en Chile

4. Multilingualism in Chile: Approaches to the New Linguistic Diversity

Citation — APA 7th Edition:
Lazzaro-Salazar, M., & Ranjan, R. (2026). Presentación. Multilingüismo en Chile: Aproximaciones hacia la nueva diversidad lingüística. Boletín de Filología, 61(1), 10–29.

Rethinking Chile’s Linguistic Diversity

Is Chile truly a monolingual country? This presentation article challenges the traditional view of Chile as a linguistically homogeneous nation and invites readers to reconsider multilingualism as a key dimension of social inclusion, cultural identity, and public policy.

Published in a special issue of Boletín de Filología from Universidad de Chile, the article introduces a collection of studies that explore the current state and future projections of multilingualism in Chile, connecting local realities with broader international debates on language policies, multiculturalism, and linguistic rights.

Key Publication Data

Special Issue Focus:
The article introduces a monographic issue dedicated to multilingualism in Chile, bringing together national and international studies on linguistic diversity, language policies, education, migration, translation, literature, and intercultural communication.

Project Framework:
The publication emerges from the collaborative work developed within the ANID FOVI230232 project, which aimed to create the Interdisciplinary Network of Researchers LanPol — Language Policies — connecting regional institutions in Chile with international academic partners.

International Collaboration:
The special issue is the result of an intercultural academic network involving researchers from Chile, Argentina, India, and Brazil, with the goal of generating updated knowledge on multilingual contexts and their implications for sustainable development.

Key Contribution

The article argues that Chile’s linguistic reality is far more diverse than commonly assumed. While Spanish is widely treated as the country’s official language, the article highlights the presence of Indigenous languages, foreign languages, migrant languages, additional languages, and different varieties of Spanish currently used across Chilean society.

This perspective challenges monolingual ideologies and draws attention to the need for clearer and more inclusive language policies. The authors emphasize that recognizing multilingualism is not only a linguistic matter, but also a social, cultural, educational, and political responsibility.

👥 Authorship & Affiliation: Dr. Mariana Lazzaro-Salazar (Centro de Investigación de Estudios Avanzados del Maule - UCM, Chile) and Dr. Ranjeeva Ranjan (Departamento de Fundamentos de la Educación - UCM, Chile).

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