ABSTRACT
This study examines the ordinariness of difference in dialect contact and translinguistics in the Latino community of Washington, DC, a population characterized by internal diversity and a Salvadoran majority. Data are sociolinguistic surveys with 63 adult first/second-generation immigrants, contextualized through ethnography. Findings indicate that dialect contact and transdialecting are normalized due to local exposure to and discourses of diversity. However, dialects retain social meaning as an index of regional identity and in relationship to Latin American dialect attitudes. Findings challenge assumptions that the differences encoded in language diversity are necessarily foregrounded in translinguistic behavior in quotidian interactions, demonstrating that, in highly diverse communities, speakers may perceive these encounters as unremarkable, and demonstrate that ‘sameness of difference’ and ‘ordinariness of diversity’ can coexist with ideologies of difference that use dialect variation as a salient marker of different group identities. The study contributes new insight into the ordinariness of translinguistics as a product of sociolinguistic diversity, contact, and identity grounded in the local social context and raises new directions for sociolinguistic inquiry in global cities and other contexts that unsettle traditional sociolinguistic paradigms, complicating the relationship between language and society.
