The Talk of Tamils in Multilingual Montreal: A Study of Intersecting Language Ideologies in Nationalist Quebec

Abstract

In Montreal, racial, caste, socioeconomic, and gender inequalities are often masked as neutral-seeming linguistic differences of dialect, register, and accent. These sociolinguistic hierarchies are upheld by intersecting language ideologies, or essentialised beliefs about language use and ethnic identity. Quebec nationalist and multicultural policies endorse language ideologies of linguistic purity and sociolinguistic compartmentalisation to depict a cohesive nation while maintaining its racial and ethnic distinctions. Similarly, Montreal Tamil diaspora leaders encourage different Tamil-speaking groups to participate in sociolinguistically segregated domains to preserve purist linguistic standards and maintain socioeconomic, caste, and gender distinctions. Heritage language programmes reproduce these language-based distinctions for differentiating between types of Québécois citizens, while Montreal Tamil youth selectively challenge or endorse such prescriptions to produce a range of social identities and linguistic practices that correspond to their experiences as ethnic and racial minorities.

Language Education and ‘Conflicted Heritage’: Implications for Teaching and Learning

“…Similarly, Blackledge and Creese () as well as Garcia (, ) criticized the notion of heritage language for solidifying language practices, representing languages as ‘museum objects’ with clear‐cut boundaries, and for essentializing the relations between languages and communities (see also García, Zakharia, & Otcu, ; Wiley et al., ). In contrast, research in heritage classrooms shows that students tend to resist the ‘boundaries’ between languages and identities, and on the ground, they use and mix different linguistic features in a more resourceful and creative way, adopting different identity positionings, resisting or subverting school ideologies and language policies (see, e.g., Blackledge & Creese, , for Birmingham; Das, , for Canada; Okubo, , for Japan; Zakharia, , for New York). Heritage language education as a political discourse . In the U.S. context, and in particular within the No Child Left Behind Act (), HLE has been criticized as a political discourse for constructing other‐than‐English languages spoken in the United States as something that belongs to the past, and for being used to silence policies and discourses around bilingual education.…”

Rewriting the past and reimagining the future: The social life of a Tamil heritage language industry

“…Similar themes of intergenerational strife were humorously raised at a cultural show sponsored by the Quebec Tamil Association in celebration of the Hindu holiday of Deepavali in October 2005. Both first‐generation elders and second‐generation youth coauthored this show and a female college student originally from India and male teenager born in Montreal served as its masters of ceremony (Das 2008b). During a brief segment of the show, the MCs assume the roles of immigrant mother (ammā) and Canadian‐born son (makan) to poke fun at the cultural and linguistic ignorance of second‐generation Tamil youth.…”

Multilingual Behaviour within the Portuguese and Italian Communities in Montreal: A Quest of Purism

“…In our global society, where individuals may experiment a crisis of identity, multilingual behaviour is reviewed and analysed for its dynamicity, reconsidering new multilingual repertories and new indefinite identities. In Montreal, a context where multilingualism is observed (see: Magnan and Lamarre 2016;Sarkar and Low 2012;Das 2008;Park and Sarkar 2007;and Heller 2007), in-group ideologies and stereotypical attitudes are determinant in order to maintain a strong sense of community within urban reality.…”