Research Article

Abstract

ABSTRACT Adopting an online ethnographic approach, we examine the linguistic/semiotic practices and ideologies of “purism” among Tatar and Iranian Azerbaijani Facebook users. We argue that purification practices can be understood as identity work, the outcome of which is often not an etymologically “purer” language but a (perceived) “purer” and more “authentic” identity. We show that top-down standardization in Tatar has resulted in more homogenized ideologies regarding “pure” language and “authentic” identity, compared to the more heterogeneous ideologies among Iranian Azerbaijanis. Furthermore, we argue that since these communities rarely use the written form of their languages in off-line contexts, their purification practices are profoundly limited to metapragmatic discourses; however, social media provides a unique venue to also exercise these ideologies linguistically/semiotically. Finally, unlike previous scholarship that has focused on the informality of language use on social media, we illustrate how social media turns out to be a platform to practice formal language. KEYWORDS: Azerbaijani/Azerilanguage and identitylanguage ideologieslinguistic purism/purificationsocial mediaTatar Acknowledgments We would like to thank Rakesh Bhatt, Lydia Catedral, and Kate Lyons for their helpful comments on the initial draft of this paper. This study has also benefited from our discussions with Michele Koven, Kira Hall, Members of Language and Society Discussion group at the University of Illinois and participants at the AAAL 2016 conference in Orlando, FL. We are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback. All remaining errors are our own.

Faculty Members

• Farzad Karimzad - Department of English, Salisbury University
• Gulnaz Sibgatullina - Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University , The Netherlands

Themes

• Language ideologies
• Identity construction
• Linguistic purism
• Social media as a linguistic platform
• Top-down standardization in language
• Cultural and ethnic identity

Categories

• Area, ethnic, cultural, gender, and group studies
• Humanities and humanistic studies
• Area studies
• Social sciences
• Humanities, other
• Humanities
• Ethnic studies
• Foreign languages, literatures, and linguistics
• Hispanic Latin American languages, literatures, and linguistics
• Theological and ministerial studies
• Romance languages, literatures, and linguistics
• Sociology, general
• Sociology, demography, and population studies
• Sociology, demography, and population studies nec