Abstract
Polylingual languaging has become a typical phenomenon in the global contact zone of migratory space. It is embedded in transnational and transcultural flows of languages. The empirical data of this paper are situated and mediated peer group performances of adolescents of ‘German-Turkish background’ which will be analyzed within a hybridity approach of interactional sociolinguistics and the sociolinguistics of globalization, demonstrating how the adolescents’ polylingual performances can only be understood socio-historically as a transcultural interface. Their performances are attempts to appropriate semantic space where their language is no longer the object of dominant discourse but constitutes an autonomous form of (counter-)discourse in its own right.
For Jens Normann Jørgensen
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Notes
- 1.
Special thanks to Tuna Döger, Ahmet Atasever and Feray Yıkılmaz-Şahin for their support in acquiring and also explaining the data.
- 2.
For comparable data from female dominated groups: Keim 2008.
- 3.
The German original version is “das herausgepresste, kurzatmige und hybride Gestammel”. See also Pfaff 2005.
- 4.
I have not changed anything from the original text. The non-existing graphical environment yielded mainly text and no smiley-graphics etc. Omitted are protocol features, e.g. who is entering or leaving the chat room – although this helps a lot with the orientation of the continuously changing participation framework. Furthermore, the time line of the original has been substituted by line numbers in order to be able to refer to the utterance in question.
- 5.
Here again I want to express my utmost gratitude to Feray Yıkılmaz-Şahin who not only made the chat accessible to me but also supported me extensively in deciphering the data, helping me with the Turkish and the interpretation of some of the hidden nuances of the text.
- 6.
To refer to the contributions as ‘turns’ means something like “turns of on-line writing”, only partly following Conversation Analysis categories of speaking turns and their implications.
- 7.
Except, of course, for „heisst des“, which could be a Swabian dialect form for “heisst/heißt das”.
- 8.
„Weisst du“ would at least in Germany be written with an <ß> instead of double <s> . Obviously the consistent substitution of <ß> by double <s> (see <fuss> in line 42 instead of <Fuß>) is due to the uniqueness of this letter, which is often not correctly displayed. – Another point concerns <SHiZoFReN>’s standard use: He or she could be a non-dialect speaker, not using this form at all. However, he/ she uses “des” for “das”, the Swabian demonstrative, in line 23. So the standard form has to be regarded as part of the speaker’s linguistic repertoire and perhaps also as a meaningful use. Interestingly, in line 13 we come across the personal pronoun “ich” (I) realized as “isch” by the same speaker, which might be another dialect form, but definitely is not Swabian. It could also well be an ethnolectal form (see further below).
- 9.
Lit. What do you watch? (coll.)
- 10.
‘ulen’ is again derived from ‘oğlan’ (son), here a dialectal form.
- 11.
The terminology of this variety is critical. Auer’s “Türkenslang”-label (Auer 2003) could be assessed as reductionist in a twofold way, “slang” being connotated quite negatively, and ignorant of self-labeling practices. Kern and Selting’s “Türkendeutsch” (2006) is both, reductionist and suggestive at the same time, like all fixed compounds, construing a deceptive unit and insinuating that it is the language of German Turks. The term “Kanak Sprak” carries the flair of stemming from the users themselves (Zaimoglu 1995; Pfaff 2005 etc.). It can be regarded as a kind of reusurpation of the xenophobic abusive term “Kanacke” (recognizable by the German <ck>, which now is often substituted by a non-German simple <k> ), and “Sprak” is just kanaks’ adulteration of the term “Sprache” (language). As could be seen, the manipulation of the German standard spelling in this way is programmatic. – How well this ethnic invective “kanak” (or “kanack”) has been established in the meantime can be seen, e.g., from its usage in the rapper scene, the Kurdish-German rapper “Haftbefehl” (writ of capias; mittimus) named one of his albums “kanackiş” (pronounced ‘kanakish’) – also combining German (“kanack-“) and Turkish (-iş); when pronounced in the Turkish way it results in the German adjective “kanackisch” (kanak-like); when pronounced in the German way it comes very close to “Knackis”, a colloquial expression for (male) prisoner.
- 12.
<Tinimini>’s statement could also be read as “Rapid mate, no word against the German of my paranoia”, alluding to the ‘paranoid’ usage of the German language or something similar.
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Appendix
Appendix
Legend for transcriptions
{?kommt} | doubtful reconstruction |
{fährt /Pferd} | potential alternatives of hearing and interpreting |
(….) | incomprehensible |
((….)) | commentary, e.g. ((1.5 s.)), ((laughter)) |
#((….)) text# | scope of commentary |
wie- | abortion of utterance |
sa:gt, sa:::gt | vowel lengthening, degree of lengthening |
dasssss, | holding of consonant, according to intensity |
ein | assimilation of unstressed endings such as “ein” instead of “einen” |
damit | stressed, emphasized |
DAS high volume | high volume |
°da° | low volume |
*ach was* | slowly |
>darüber< | fast |
>>darunter<< | very fast |
/ver/ste/hen/staccato/ | syllabic kind of speech |
+ | pause below a second |
(+) | micropause |
(h) | onset hesitation |
= | fast connection, latching |
kom[men | |
[da | overlap and point of overlap |
oğlum | identifiable Turkish parts in italics |
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Hinnenkamp, V. (2016). Languaging in the Global Contact Zone: Polylingual Performances as Transcultural Interface. In: Kazzazi, K., Treiber, A., Wätzold, T. (eds) Migration – Religion – Identität. Aspekte transkultureller Prozesse. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-06510-2_8
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