Multilingual urban Scandinavia

Based on a series of examples from the UPUS-Project (Linguistic Development in Urban Environments), this paper provides an overview of the main innovative lexical forms, e.g. neologisms, use of slang, loan words especially from non-European languages, in the speech of adolescents living in Oslo, Norway and determines in which communicative settings they have appeared. Recent studies (cf. Drange 2002; Johannessen 2008) have identified two linguistic ‘varieties’, one of which is located in the Eastern parts of the city and is affected by multilingual environments. I argue that the multilingual dimension is both decisive for predicting the forms innovation takes and for justifying the motivations of speakers to innovate in their speech.

This article questions the specificity of the “contemporary urban vernaculars” (Rampton) usually called “youth languages”. Starting from a review of the different labels designating these language practices, it shows that many of them link them to the expression of ethnicity, hence the success of the category of “(multi)ethnolect”. After having criticized this recourse to ethnicity, the authors discuss the role of linguistic contact in contemporary urban vernaculars since their linguistic hybridity if one of their mostly noticed features. They argue for the necessity to take thoroughly into account the social context of these language contacts in a way to understand their outcomes. Henceforth, the authors examine the role played by factors in the shaping of heteroglossic urban vernaculars: social attitudes towards immigrant languages and identification processes on the one hand, and specific forms of verbal interactions within the speakers’ “street culture” on the other hand.

Applied linguistics review, 2017

The metalinguistic function, one of the famous functions of language formulated by Jakobson (1960), is the capacity of language to talk about language itself. This reflexivity is considered to be one of the defining features of natural human language. But this general, overarching definition gives room to many subdefinitions that, in their turn, may lead to very different types of research that seek to answer very different research questions. For example, in the volume on Metalanguage edited by Jaworski et al. (2004), contributions represent a wide variety of linguistic research disciplines, from pragmatic studies and language philosophy to linguistic anthropology and Critical Discourse Analysis. Also in studies on logic and formal linguistics the term can be encountered (e.g., Harris 1991). Therefore, the first objective of this introduction is to provide a definition of 'metalanguage' as it is employed in this special issue. Our second objective is to argue that 'metalinguistic comment' as it is defined in this introduction, can be a valuable diagnostic tool, not only in anthropology and anthropological linguistics, but also in sociolinguistic analysis. In addition, in this introduction we want to provide a classification of the forms in which metalinguistic comments can occur. We will end this introduction with an overview of the individual contributions.

Nordiques, 2018

Cet article se propose de décrire et de comparer les pratiques langagières d'adolescents bilingues suédois-finnois originaires de Haparanda, Stockholm et Helsinki dans trois situations sociolinguistiques différentes entre 2014 et 2017. Nous analysons ces pratiques par le biais du « translanguaging », un courant théorique qui se définit comme l'utilisation simultanée de ressources linguistiques diverses en situation informelle. Une approche translangagière présente l'avantage d'explorer l'utilisation et les fonctions de l'alternance de ressources en interaction plutôt que de se focaliser sur les langues en elles-mêmes. Une attention particulière est portée aux pratiques translangagières des jeunes bilingues originaires de Haparanda, une ville suédoise située au nord-est de la frontière avec la Finlande, en raison de la rareté des données dans cette zone pourtant connue pour son bilinguisme. Nous démontrons que les adolescents utilisent couramment et avec souplesse des ressources linguistiques diverses telles que le suédois et finnois « standard », l'anglais, le meänkieli 1 , les dialectes locaux ou encore l'argot des jeunes à des fins communicationnelles. Le contexte sociolinguistique joue un impact considérable pour comprendre l'utilisation de ces ressources.

This paper aims at mapping out and analysing language variation and the underlying social dynamics at various points in the spectrum of urbanization from capital city to small agricultural village (province North Brabant). In the Netherlands, local dialects are gradually changing into regional languages, albeit with a recognizable accent and vocabulary. The original stage of diglossia changes to diaglossia. These new language varieties are clearly linked to regional identities, as well as to other markers of regional and local identity, such as sports (and their respective supporters), folklore, and music preferences. Research in the area of variety and diversity in language and culture among adolescents has been conducted frequently over the last ten years in the Western and Northern European language area, but the focus always is on urban subcultures. In North Brabant however rural societies are also very dynamic and have a rich history of immigration (from Indonesia in the 1950s till Poland and Romania in the last decade). Via participant observations and speech recordings of students from various high schools, in their 'natural habitat' (club, school), extralingual data were gathered in order to construct style clusters (sets of regular concurrencies of social features) and define social and geographical background. Spontaneous speech was recorded in order to isolate linguistic features, special to new language varieties (cf. Quist 2008). New language varieties between traditional, local dialects and standard Dutch show a broad spectrum of identity marking features, such as hyperdialectforms, greeting rituals, regional accents, loan words (Limburgish, Surinam, English). The paper focuses on new language varieties in the continuum between dialect and standard language and can be qualified as a mix of geo-and sociolinguistic and ethno-and sociocultural microvariation research.

Journal of Sociolinguistics, 2015

Copenhagen studies in Bilingualism, 2008