The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
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10 The Linguist Vol/58 No/3 2019 ciol.org.uk/tl FEATURES This leads to a naturalisation of linguistic authority, which allows institutionally or demographically dominant languages, such as English in the UK or US and French in France, to consolidate their position into one of hegemony. Their superordinate position is thereby naturalised, taken for granted and placed beyond question. When another language enters the same public space, thereby undermining this superordinate position, its presence is questioned and its speakers seen as disruptive of the status quo. 'Deviant' native tongues This is also relevant in the context of some of Europe's minoritised languages. 3 Galician, Basque and Catalan hold co-official status in their autonomous communities, but Spanish is still the official language of the State. In certain contexts, the use of these minority languages can be seen as deviant or out of place compared with the 'neutral' use of Spanish. 4 We see a similar pattern with languages such as Irish, Welsh and Gaelic in contact with English. Having lived in Scotland for 10 years, I have become familiar with discussions around the place of Gaelic in the public space, with frequent media outbursts about Gaelic being a waste of money, and tensions around visibility of the language on road signs. Because of the hegemony of English, groups which demand language rights for Gaelic, Irish etc can be seen as insular – or not global enough – in their thinking, as opposed to the perceived neutrality and cosmopolitanism of English. English has become the language from 'nowhere', and millions of non-native speakers around the world have now made it their own. However, for some, English has also come to represent a particular culture – this sometimes revolves around neoliberal ideologies and sometimes relates to injustice or domination. So, essentially, there is no such thing as a neutral language. Accents vs access Similarly, there is no such thing as a neutral way of speaking – i.e. not having an accent. Intolerance is not restricted to the use of a certain language, but also relates to the way of speaking it and whether or not you are a so-called 'native' speaker. Legitimacy is often given to the native speaker, and native- speaker ideologies are strong in linguistics and related strands. But what, then, of the non- native speaker? What legitimacy do they have to speak, to write, to translate, to teach? Their non-nativeness denies them authenticity and authority because they don't sound native. Speaking with an accent can have serious consequences in terms of access and credibility – of being accepted as one of 'us' – and have repercussions in terms of people's ability to access resources such as the labour market and education. Following the Brexit vote, there were reports of linguistic intolerance relating to the way new speakers of English were using the language. Hate crimes increased fivefold in the week after the vote. 5 Economist Marianna Koli, who had lived in the UK since moving from her native Finland, told how she experienced what she says was her first racist incident in 16 years when a passer-by shouted, "I like your accent". While the comment in itself was not explicitly negative, the woman perceived it as threatening in a Brexit context, where she was being explicitly labelled because of her accent and therefore perceived as foreign. Many studies have shown that accent has a strong influence on the way in which people are perceived and then treated. 6 Even though we don't like to admit it – or perhaps no longer realise we are doing it – we often judge people because of their accent and the way they speak. We associate certain accents with certain ethnic groups, social class and race. An experiment in France showed that the way people speak has a striking influence on whether they can access housing. Two people contacted estate agents to arrange a viewing for a flat: 'Anne', with a standard French accent, was three times more likely to get a viewing than 'Babacar', who had an African accent. He was asked if his salary was three times the rent by 40% of the estate agents, while Anne was only asked 10% of the time. 7 The responsibility of linguists Linguistics as a field, and we as linguists, have played our part in legitimising many of the concepts and much of the terminology used in linguistics today. One such concept is that of the native speaker versus the non-native speaker. There has been a good deal of work in recent years which questions the basic epistemologies of linguistics and related strands, which had previously been unquestioned and taken for granted. The EU-funded project 'New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe: Opportunities and © SHUTTERSTOCK