Toward a Century of Language Attitudes Research:Looking Back and Moving Forward

The study of language attitudes is concerned with the social meanings people assign to language and its users. With roots in social psychology nearly a century ago, language attitudes research spans several academic disciplines and draws on diverse methodological approaches. In an attempt to integrate this work and traverse disciplinary boundaries and methodological proclivities, we propose that language attitudes—as a unified field—can be organized into five distinct—yet interdependent and complementary—lines of research: documentation, explanation, development, consequences, and change. After highlighting some of the key findings that have emerged from each area, we discuss several opportunities and challenges for future research

When voice signals nationality and sexual orientation:Speakers’ self-perceptions and perceived stigmatization

Research has shown that individuals speaking low-prestige language varieties are often negatively evaluated and stigmatized by others. However, less is known about how speakers of such language varieties perceive their own speech. Here, we examined self-perceptions and perceived stigma of speakers who belong to multiple social categories signaled by auditory cues. Specifically, we examined beliefs of sexual minority and heterosexual male speakers who were either British nationals (native English speakers) or foreigners living in the UK (non-native English speakers). British speakers believed their voices cue their nationality more than foreigners. Heterosexuals believed their voices reveal their sexual orientation, but only when they self-perceived as sounding masculine. Sexual minority and foreign speakers felt more stigmatized because of the way they sound than did heterosexual and British speakers, respectively. These findings have implications for intergroup communication and voice-based stigmatization literature

Alcohol consumption among the elderly citizens in Hungary and Serbia: comparative assessment

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Vitality, Language Use, and Life Satisfaction : A Study of Bilingual Hungarian Adolescents Living in Romania

This study examined the relationship between objective and subjective vitality, in-group language use, and life satisfaction among two groups of bilingual Hungarians adolescents living in Romania: a low objective vitality group from Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvar, where Hungarians are the demographic minority, and a high objective vitality group from Sfantu Gheorghe/Sepsiszentgyorgy, where Hungarians are the demographic majority. Consistent with predictions, the high objective vitality group reported higher subjective Hungarian vitality, lower subjective Romanian vitality, more frequent use of the Hungarian language, and higher life satisfaction, compared with the low objective vitality group. The effects of objective vitality on language use were partially mediated by subjective Romanian (but not Hungarian) vitality. Conversely, the effects of objective vitality on life satisfaction were fully mediated by subjective Hungarian (but not Romanian) vitality.Peer reviewe

I don't like you because you're hard to understand: the role of processing fluency in the language attitudes process

Two experiments examined the effects of processing fluency-that is, the ease with which speech is processed-on language attitudes toward native- and foreign-accented speech. Participants listened to an audio recording of a story read in either a Standard American English (SAE) or Punjabi English (PE) accent. They heard the recording either free of noise or mixed with background white noise of various intensity levels. Listeners attributed more solidarity (but equal status) to the SAE than the PE accent. Compared to quieter listening conditions, noisier conditions reduced processing fluency, elicited a more negative affective reaction, and resulted in more negative language attitudes. Processing fluency and affect mediated the effects of noise on language attitudes. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications are discussed

Sticking Together? : Georgia’s “Beached” Armenians Between Mobilization and Acculturation

As the USSR fell apart and independent countries took its place, minorities across Eurasia found themselves stranded in nationalizing states. This article focuses on one of these “beached diasporas”: Georgia’s Armenians. Through a mixed-methods approach, consisting of interviews with activists and a sociolinguistic experiment administered to adolescents (N = 529), we uncover differences among Armenians in their reactions to Georgia’s nationalization policies. Armenians from the borderland of Javakheti mobilized in defence of the in-group but their co-ethnics from the capital of Tbilisi opted for acculturation. These intragroup differences demonstrate that members of the same ethnic group can react to the same nationalization policies along disparate lines, thus adding nuance to the literature on beached diasporas in the post-Soviet space.Planning for Integration: Landscapes of Power in Borderland Governanc

Effects of written code-mixing on processing fluency and perceptions of organizational inclusiveness

Participants read English-based online texts from fictional organizations that either included no code-mixing, Hawaiian words without glosses (i.e., parenthetical translations), or Hawaiian words with English glosses. Relative to no code-mixing, code-mixing without glosses disrupted processing fluency, leading participants to feel less welcome in the organization. Code-mixing with glosses did not disrupt fluency for participants from Hawai‘i, where this practice is common, but did for people from elsewhere. No differences in feeling welcome emerged between code-mixing with glosses and no code-mixing conditions. These results suggest that code-mixing in written organizational materials can have both costs (i.e., disrupted fluency) and benefits (i.e., cueing inclusiveness), and that these effects depend on audiences’ familiarity with code-mixing as a practice, and the format of code-mixing.</p

When voice signals nationality and sexual orientation: Speakers’ self-perceptions and perceived stigmatization

Research has shown that individuals speaking low-prestige language varieties are often negatively evaluated and stigmatized by others. However, less is known about how speakers of such language varieties perceive their own speech. Here, we examined self-perceptions and perceived stigma of speakers who belong to multiple social categories signaled by auditory cues. Specifically, we examined beliefs of sexual minority and heterosexual male speakers who were either British nationals (native English speakers) or foreigners living in the UK (non-native English speakers). British speakers believed their voices cue their nationality more than foreigners. Heterosexuals believed their voices reveal their sexual orientation, but only when they self-perceived as sounding masculine. Sexual minority and foreign speakers felt more stigmatized because of the way they sound than did heterosexual and British speakers, respectively. These findings have implications for intergroup communication and voice-based stigmatization literature