“Portuguese is the world’s seventh most used language!” The promotion of the Portuguese language in two Portuguese communities in North America

This study compares two Portuguese communities that have been settled in North America since the twentieth century. While numbers are dropping in local Portuguese community schools, members of the community are actively promoting Portuguese as a language of the future and a valuable asset. Based on an analysis of the linguistic ideologies surrounding Portuguese among community members, we observed the discourses that are constructed with reference to Portuguese as a language of the past, as a marker of identity, but also as an international language and a tool for the future. Our qualitative methodology, based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews, allowed us to analyze language practices, focusing on the perception and identification of “correct” Portuguese, identified as the norm. It would appear that so-called mixed or hybrid language practices are constantly being challenged by the reactivation of the prescriptive nationalist paradigm that is based on an equation of “one language = one nation” and/or “one community = one norm.”