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Performing Legitimacy: Interactional Authority in Arpitan Language Activism

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Title: Performing Legitimacy: Interactional Authority in Arpitan Language Activism
Language: English
Authors: Natalia Bichurina (ORCID 0000-0002-0205-1085)
Source: Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication. 2026 45(2):175-204.
Availability: De Gruyter Mouton. Available from: Walter de Gruyter, Inc. 121 High Street, Third Floor, Boston, MA 02110. Tel: 857-284-7073; Fax: 857-284-7358; e-mail: service@degruyter.com; Web site: http://www.degruyter.com
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 30
Publication Date: 2026
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Evaluative
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Activism, Language Attitudes, Language Minorities, Romance Languages, Case Studies, Geographic Regions, Multilingualism, Code Switching (Language), Political Attitudes, Ideology, Social Behavior
Geographic Terms: Italy
DOI: 10.1515/multi-2025-0127
ISSN: 0167-8507
1613-3684
Abstract: This article examines how language activists use interaction itself as a site of political action. While research on minority languages has often focused on large-scale processes or treated interviews as monologic accounts, this study approaches activism through the micro-dynamics of talk. Drawing on two interviews with Arpitan activists in Italy's Aosta Valley, I show that such encounters are not simply moments of narration but arenas in which activists perform and negotiate their legitimacy. Through strategies such as provocative openings and closings, control of topics and turn-taking, code-switching across three languages, and selective withdrawal from speech events, activists work to impose a particular vision of reality, one in which "Arpitania" exists as a socio-political entity. By linking these interactional practices to broader struggles over linguistic authority, the article argues for an interactionist approach to language activism that bridges micro-level performance and macro-political dynamics.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2026
Accession Number: EJ1500050
Database: ERIC
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  Data: Performing Legitimacy: Interactional Authority in Arpitan Language Activism
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Natalia+Bichurina%22">Natalia Bichurina</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0205-1085">0000-0002-0205-1085</externalLink>)
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  Data: De Gruyter Mouton. Available from: Walter de Gruyter, Inc. 121 High Street, Third Floor, Boston, MA 02110. Tel: 857-284-7073; Fax: 857-284-7358; e-mail: service@degruyter.com; Web site: http://www.degruyter.com
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  Data: This article examines how language activists use interaction itself as a site of political action. While research on minority languages has often focused on large-scale processes or treated interviews as monologic accounts, this study approaches activism through the micro-dynamics of talk. Drawing on two interviews with Arpitan activists in Italy's Aosta Valley, I show that such encounters are not simply moments of narration but arenas in which activists perform and negotiate their legitimacy. Through strategies such as provocative openings and closings, control of topics and turn-taking, code-switching across three languages, and selective withdrawal from speech events, activists work to impose a particular vision of reality, one in which "Arpitania" exists as a socio-political entity. By linking these interactional practices to broader struggles over linguistic authority, the article argues for an interactionist approach to language activism that bridges micro-level performance and macro-political dynamics.
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      – SubjectFull: Language Attitudes
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      – TitleFull: Performing Legitimacy: Interactional Authority in Arpitan Language Activism
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