Ethnolinguistic betrayal and speaker evaluations: Some Italian Australian data

Examined the relationship between subjective ethnolinguistic vitality and ingroup perceptions of fellow members speaking the dominant group's language. 40 middle-aged Italian-Australians (aged 33-73 yrs) rated 2 males speaking Italian, Sicilian, and Italian-accented Australian English on status and solidarity dimensions. Results show that Ss downgraded English and Sicilian speakers relative to Italian speakers on both dimensions, with a tendency for status downgrading to be most marked when the Sicilian dialect was spoken and for solidarity downgrading to be most marked in the formal context. Findings support the hypothesis that the more ethnic ingroupers identify with their ethnic group, the more negative are their feelings toward fellow ingroupers who speak the dominant group's language.