Abstract
In sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology, several studies have dealt with language ideologies, defining them as socially shared ideas about language. This notion is particularly relevant in minority contexts, where tensions between different language ideologies are inherent in the concept of minority itself. In our contribution, we will address two different ideologies: one that considers language as a symbol of an ethno-national identity, and another treating language as a skill that in turn can become an economic resource in a globalised world. Drawing on interviews conducted with adolescents, our analysis focuses on the Ladin valleys in South Tyrol, where a small language such as Ladin encounters the pressures of an economy based on tourism. In the common imagination, the geography of this territory is often associated with the idea of a mountainous periphery, as opposed to an urban centre which sets the norms also for the periphery. Instead, we will show how this multilingual periphery challenges the line of demarcation between periphery and centre in an increasingly fluid world.