Abstract
Increasingly, dialectological descriptions of linguistic differences appear to be based on an overly simple conception of the relation between language and space. In a time of increased mobility it is ever more difficult to retain the idea of dialects – or language – as belonging in one particular territory. People and dialects are constantly on the move, and as a consequence territories are increasingly linguistically heterogeneous, and individuals are expanding their linguistic repertoires. The idea of a strong connection between place, individual and language is thus increasingly challenged. Yet that idea, though in transformation, seems in one form or another to persist. It seems worth asking, therefore, what it takes to sound like you belong. Do you need to speak a language “the native way” to pass as a “true” representative of a given place? Which variety of the local dialect would you have to speak? Would it be acceptable to speak a levelled dialect? Could you switch between different dialects, or speak with an accent? Put differently: in late-modernity, globalized Norway, what are people’s preconceptions about the connections that exist or ought to exist between language, body, and place? What expectations do people have regarding connections between language and identity? And last, but not least: what are the language ideologies that lie behind people’s preconceptions of and attitudes towards dialects in Norway today? These are among the questions I discuss in this contribution.