Beyond Monolingual Views: The Language Ideologies of Multilinguals on Anglicisms in French and German

This article investigates the perceptions of anglicisms—English borrowings in other languages—among L1’ French speakers with German as an L2’, challenging the prevailing monolingual lens in language ideological research. The analysis of interview data shows three dominant language ideologies. First, an ideology of neutralization is present in German, with anglicisms being more accepted and unmarked in German (L2’) compared to French (L1’), reflecting a greater openness in the second language and a protective attitude toward linguistic purity in the first language. Second, the ideology of linguistic elitism sees the use of English words in French as a form of social distinction or an attempt to appear fashionable. Third, the ideology of linguistic ambivalence reflects the tension between resistance and globalization in multilingual contexts, as opposing anglicisms is viewed as contradictory with a multilingual identity and foreign influences. Finally, the study highlights that the ideology of naturalness leads to language ideological phenomena being viewed as unmarked in the L2’, whereas changes are more often resisted in the L1’. This disparity emphasizes the need for further contrastive sociolinguistic research on how multilingual contexts and migration shape evolving language ideologies.