“You Speak Well for an Anglophone”: Resisting the Processes of Delegitimation and Developing Linguistic Security

Abstract

This article explores the ways that young French speakers from British Columbia, an English-dominant province of Canada, navigate different processes of linguistic delegitimation and how these processes are linked to linguistic insecurity. The findings are derived from interviews conducted with nine young French speakers from British Columbia who shared their most significant experiences of linguistic insecurity. The results, which are based on a thematic analysis, show how participants are being delegitimized by family members from dominant French-speaking contexts due to some of their linguistic practices that diverge from standard forms. They also indicate that participants have found ways to gain linguistic security by acquiring knowledge, participating in their communities, and accepting different linguistic practices that characterize their variety of French. However, this linguistic security work is limited by the existing ideologies in the French-speaking world that delegitimize the non-standard varieties.