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AbstractIn this article, we propose a historical, political, and critical framework that situates language surveys and censuses as an object of sociolinguistic inquiry. First, we provide a brief history of the production of language statistics that aims to understand why authoritative bodies "need" language statistics, and what political agendas they help fulfil. Second, we highlight the epistemological and methodological challenges that emerge from the creation of language statistics. Third, we focus on the socio-political consequences of language statistics in society, including a focus on the actors and institutions that use or contest numbers in various contexts, and how language statistics impact the (un)equal distribution of resources. We argue that censuses and surveys are always embedded in political projects and constitute a complex combination of scientific and socio-political arguments that shape the way language and speakers are conceived of. As such, we emphasize the importance of recognizing censuses and surveys as a site for sociolinguistic inquiry, while anchoring our understanding of this instrument's inner workings within the particularities of the historical and political conditions in which they emerge.

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to analyze the conducting of a state survey on language and to highlight the ideological tensions that are embedded in the search for an appropriate formulation of a question, as well as in the conduct of the survey interviews. Relying on historiographic data, as well as on interactional data, and focusing on the opening question of the survey that deals with the main language(s) of the respondent, defined as the language(s) they know the best, we first explore the origin and the history of this question in the Swiss census. Second, we examine how, by whom, and with what rationales the main language question has been formulated and selected within in the most recent survey. Finally, we analyze how this question is enacted in the interactions between interviewers and respondents. By engaging in a genealogical examination of language questions in Swiss censuses, we provide insight into the ideological formation in which these questions are embedded, revealing conflicting and ambiguous interests, thus implying complications and uncertainties with regard to interpretations of available census data.