Connecting Micro and Macro Sociolinguistic Processes through Narratives. A Glotopolitical Gaze

Bürki, Yvette (2019). Connecting Micro and Macro Sociolinguistic Processes through Narratives. A Glotopolitical Gaze. Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, 41(1), pp. 12-24. Taylor & Francis 10.1080/01434632.2019.1621876

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This contribution examines the linguistic perceptions and ideologies of an individual of Latin American origin, Jorge, based in the German-speaking region of Switzerland, through narratives to analyse how pre-existing normative linguistic discourses influence (linguistic) identities. Connecting the micro-level of Jorge’s narrative to the macro glottopolitical level is a way of showing how languages are charged with different values and are arranged hierarchically, proving that they respond to an ideological framework in which purist ideologies of national and colonial discourses are interwoven with other discourses that reveal the influence of late capitalism. Thanks to these linguistic values, Jorge is able to position himself closer to certain ethnic groups than to others. Thus, through the languages in question – German, Swiss German, English and French – Jorge reveals an identity that draws him towards the German collective, distancing him not only from the Swiss German collective but also from his own Latin American collective. This also demonstrates that the Latin American ethnic category cannot be analysed as a homogeneous group, and that in order to understand the identity dynamics of this group in Switzerland we must necessarily address their own life histories.

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