“Tak for alt papá og Mamá”: Argentine Danish cemeteries as bilingual epigraphic landscapes

This article focuses on formulaic and personalized epitaphs as well as visual motifs and naming practices on approximately 50 gravestones from two Argentine Danish cemeteries spanning over a century. The analysis contains a linguistic approach to the epigraphic inscriptions, focusing on the use of Spanish and Danish as well as orthographic variation, thus tracing the use of Danish in the heritage communities over time, indicating language maintenance and shift. The gravestones are taken to represent discursive practices allowing for insights about social integration, gendered naming practices, and the cultural identity of the Argentine Danish communities as well as language competences in the heritage language and Spanish. Furthermore, the study evaluates the value of gravestones and cemeteries as a source for historical sociolinguistic inquiry, taking into account the limitations in creativity and variability inherent in their format.