Choosing which language to speak is a silent act of group allegiance

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. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1292

Categorization

• XREF: The Gaeltacht sign and the concept of ‘ethnolinguistic betrayal’ resonate with the reader’s Complaints About Immodesty piece — both are identity-signaling behaviors policed by the group. — connects to: Total language refusal can function as a critique of a whole social order — Édouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation, 627; the MOC “The Tongue of Power: When Language Becomes the Battlefield of Empire”
• SEED: The ‘Irish spoken. English understood.’ tavern sign plus the Italian-Australian betrayal finding could anchor an essay on language as the subtlest identity dress code.