53

This article came of an encounter between sociolinguistics and economics, from the standpoint of minority studies. The authors explore how the New Economy redefines the relationship between two language communities, who share a history and contemporary objectives, through the enhanced value given to linguistic resources, and also the ways speakers redefine social categorizations in the light of changing socioeconomic conditions. Analyses are based on an ethnographic study carried out in a call center in Moncton, New Brunswick. Its general aims were to get a better grasp of the hierarchical and functional distributions of the various languages circulating in a specific work environment. This in turn is part of a larger context where different linguistic ideologies compete.