ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how elite (socio)linguistic knowledge is framed in two different sites or practices of translation work: (1) a request for high-speed/pay-per-word translations for undisclosed use online; and (2) calls for cost-free, community-based translation in support of a business venture. In the first instance, my analysis focuses on a series of email exchanges in which I myself was contacted for a possible ‘Corsican/French’ translation job at four US cents a word. In the second instance, the analysis focuses on a series of online exchanges in a forum for Corsican language speakers and writers where a participant of Corsican origin solicits the group for Corsican brand/product names. In both these cases, participants engage in struggles over what constitutes linguistic knowledge in the context of shifting symbolic and material economies. We see how not only the status of the language but also the identity claims of speakers/writers are thrown into relief, pitting different sources of authority and authenticity against each other. All of which is undergirded by a conflict between elite academic knowledge and the everyday language worker status of contract translation, as well as the legitimacy of heritage language identity claims versus active knowledge of a minority language.
