As early as in the early 1970s the American linguist and anthropologist Dell Hymes (1980: 19) underlined that one of the goals of studying apparently dissimilar linguistic processes was to understand the "origins and foundations of inequality among speakers". Language shift as abandonment of a marker of suppressed identity, and the on-going negotiation through language is a possible way of addressing inequality. This dissertation presents an interdisciplinary (sociolinguistic and anthropological) analysis of linguistic behaviour, language choice and code-switching in two linguistically similar but politically distinct Arctic communities; it describe, analyze and compare the complex and multifaceted dynamics of talk - language choice and code-switching - in these two communities, focusing on the link between language and identity and on the role of language ideologies in the enactment of this link and illuminating the relationship between social structures and forms of talk. The research shows how language has the power to make and unmake groups.