Choosing one’s ingroup language over the outgroup’s is itself a form of ingroup bias

Evidence

Speech accommodation, or language switching, refers to the sometimes subtle and unspoken negotiation by which a language is selected for communication between bilinguals from two ethnolinguistic groups. Often, the selection of the language of one’s ingroup, and the corresponding rejection of the language of the outgroup, represents a unique linguistic form of ingroup bias (e.g., Giles, Taylor, & Bourhis, 1973). For example, in the Gaeltacht (Gaelic-speaking) west coast of Ireland where speaking in Gaelic was a criminal offense for generations, a sign common in many inns and taverns reads, “Irish spoken. English understood.” Hogg, D’Agata, and Abrams (1989) documented that Italian immigrants to Australia responded negatively to fellow Italian immigrants who engaged in an “ethnolinguistic betrayal” by speaking the dominant (English) language of the host receiving nation. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1292

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s color-of-lie taste for how seemingly neutral everyday choices enact group boundaries — echoes language-as-identity markers similar to Sarah Thornhill or cultural signaling in the library. — connects to: Racist discourse tends to favor the ingroup and derogate the outgroup — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1062; the MOC “The Wound of the Label: When Knowing Someone Becomes a Way of Erasing Them”
• SHARE: The ‘Irish spoken. English understood’ tavern sign in a place where Gaelic was a criminal offense is a perfect detail for anyone into Irish history or language politics.
• QUESTION: Would the negative reaction to ‘ethnolinguistic betrayal’ be symmetrical across high- and low-status groups, or is it mainly a minority-group phenomenon?