Heritage Spanish in the Bronx: linguistic attitudes & identities

Abstract

Current sociolinguistic practices and applications tend to approach the object of study, and the subsequent conclusions drawn, from the perspective of the scholar(s), with little-to-no consideration of the linguistic attitudes and ideologies of the population under study. Heritage Spanish in the U.S. is one such example where there is a lack of research centered directly on these speakers’ ideologies, attitudes, and views. This paper addresses this deficit by way of a close examination of heritage Spanish speakers’ sentiments concerning the canonical terminology and ideology that is meant to describe them as Spanish speakers. Participants (N=45) were recruited from Spanish heritage language courses at Bronx Community College (BCC). Data stems from a questionnaire consisting of multiple-choice and open-ended questions concerning linguistic identities and attitudes. The study’s primary research question was: does a collective ideology exist amongst this population with respect to their own Spanish and the linguistic labels with which they identify as language users? There did not appear to be an absolute uniform ideology amongst the participants, but we did observe notable patterns, several of which call into question the validity of commonly held linguistic beliefs about this population.