Metalinguistic Communities

Case Studies of Agency, Ideology, and Symbolic Uses of Language

Netta Avineri editor Jesse Harasta editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Published:29th Sep '22

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Metalinguistic Communities cover

This edited volume brings together ten compelling ethnographic case studies from a range of global settings to explore how people build metalinguistic communities defined not by use of a language, but primarily by language ideologies and symbolic practices about the language.  The authors examine themes of agency, belonging, negotiating hegemony, and combating cultural erasure and genocide in cultivating meaningful metalinguistic communities. Case studies include Spanish and Hebrew in the USA, Kurdish in Japan, Pataxó Hãhãhãe in Brazil, and Gallo in France. The afterword, by Wesley L. Leonard, provides theoretical and on-the-ground context as well as a forward-looking focus on metalinguistic futurities. This book will be of interest to interdisciplinary students and scholars in applied linguistics, linguistic anthropology and migration studies.

“This volume offers both insider and outsider perspectives about metalinguistic communities, using concepts such as linguistic objectification, ethnolinguistic infusion, linguistic reindigenization, nostalgia socialization, and raciolinguistics, among others, by which speakers of minoritized languages show enthusiasm for their language and differentiate themselves from outsiders, and how outsiders differentiate against insiders—thus foregrounding speakers’ agency. Linguistic anthropologists, sociolinguists, and anyone working on language revitalization and second language acquisition will find the volume helpful.” (Olamide Eniola, Language in Society, Vol. 52 (5), 2023)

ISBN: 9783030769024

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

264 pages

1st ed. 2021