This article takes a language ideological approach to the recent history of Corsican language activism. It proposes a model of different types of resistance to language domination, distinguished by the extent to which they reproduce or challenge dominant ideologies of language. It concludes that, because of the way that dominant language ideologies structure both the political and discursive marketplaces, it is almost impossible for minority language movements not to make use of them in their actions and discourse. At the same time, speakers of minoritized languages also develop heightened awareness of the complexities of identity and the workings of linguistic power, leading to the development of alternative models of language and identitification in a European and global context.