ABSTRACT
Heritage language 1 as a concept and object of study emerged in the United States in the context of second language education. It was promoted by the rise of multiculturalist ideologies and cultural activism in the United States to deal with specific challenges around heritage language acquisition and education for minoritized ethnic populations and children of immigrants and to mitigate language shift and cultural alienation (two phenomena that are viewed as linked 2 ). Such efforts are motivated by the desire to transform ways in which certain cultural differences have historically been de-valued and racialized. The perspectival positioning of much scholarship on heritage language is based on the premise that a heritage language is usually a minority language in what is often a diasporic location (or a place where sovereignty and borders are in dispute). Discourses about “minorities” and the languages they speak remain problematic. In recognition of the contestations around the usage of the term “minority,” which reifies identities and renders social inequality in reductive terms, I seek to highlight ways in which people are minoritized in specific contexts. Further, by shifting the perspective and contexts dealing with heritage language, I hope to call attention to the problematics of “majority” and “minority” designations in sociolinguistic objects of study such as heritage language. 3
