This ethnographic research examines language socialization practices and language ideologies in secular Yiddish “metalinguistic communities,” communities of positioned social actors shaped by practices that view language as an object. “Metalinguistic community” is a framework for diverse participants who can experience both distance from and closeness to the language and its speakers, due to historical, personal, and/or communal circumstances. Through an examination of classroom interactions in California, this article shows how simultaneous distancing and closeness experienced by metalinguistic community members can manifest in “contested stance practices,” public demonstrations of language ideologies that reveal both internal and external tensions. Contested stance practices reveal how members’ perceptions of language are shaped by their personal histories and those of their imagined communities; these practices become a fertile means through which individuals negotiate their relationships with language as a symbol of identity, ideology, and community.

这项人种学研究考察了世俗的意第绪语“元语言社区”中的语言社会化实践和语言意识形态，这是由视语言为对象的实践所塑造的定位社会参与者的社区。“金属语言社区”是针对各种参与者的框架，由于历史，个人和/或公共情况，他们可以体验与语言及其说话者的距离和亲近度。通过对加利福尼亚州课堂互动的考察，本文显示了语言学家社区成​​员同时发生的疏远和亲密感如何在“有争议的立场实践”中体现出来，这是语言意识形态的公开展示，揭示了内部和外部的紧张关系。有争议的立场实践揭示了成员对语言的理解如何受到他们的个人历史以及他们想象中的社区的历史的塑造；这些实践成为个人协商与语言的关系的一种肥沃手段，语言是身份，意识形态和社区的象征。