Language Ideologies and Twitter in Canada

Abstract

This chapter examines the ways in which language ideologies are embedded in English and French Canadian Twitter. Tweets are drawn from the accounts of Canada’s three main political party leaders and other tweets are collected based on the use of English and French Canadian hashtags. Findings show that although languages tend not to be an explicit topic of discussion, the French language, culture and speakers are more topical than the English language, culture and speakers. Also, assumptions about languages become embedded through the use of bilingual vs. monolingual accounts, code-switching and code-mixing, and English and French hashtags. These findings suggest the ways in which traditional offline categories such as “nation state” continue to be relevant in online spaces – especially with relation to language politics.