Language and Identity

Sanctities, Blasphemies and the (Jewish) Nation: Commemorative Inscriptions at a National Memorial Site in Israel

by Chaim Noy

The Journey Home: Language, Exile and Identity in Clarisse Nicoïdski’s Lus Ojus Las Manus La Boca

by Celine Piser

Linguistic Duopoly: A Case of Mewati

by Prerna Bakshi

Considerable attention has been drawn recently towards the plight of immigrant languages or minority languages. Much... more Considerable attention has been drawn recently towards the plight of immigrant languages or minority languages. Much is being done to maintain these languages and to bring the issues surrounding them to the public eye. However, not much has been done on linguistic varieties labelled as 'dialects'. This study seeks to fill this gap by exploring the issues surrounding a language variety called Mewati.

This paper examines the status of Mewati in relation to the other dominant languages of Hindi and Urdu and attempts to explain how social institutions like local state run schools and madrasas contribute towards language shift. Additionally, the study explores the relationship between language, religion and identity and the politics thereof. It is recommended that school curriculums must make a room for Mewati if its maintenance is to be ensured. 

Banjalung* - Transcript for a Language Course

by Thorold (Thor) May

* Banjalang, aka Bundjalung, Bunjalung, Badjalang, Banjalung & Bandjalang, is a middle Clarence dialect of a NSW, Australia Aboriginal language

This is a rudimentary phrase book for the Australian Aboriginal language Banjalung, constructed in co-operation with a... more This is a rudimentary phrase book for the Australian Aboriginal language Banjalung, constructed in co-operation with a surviving speaker and designed to encourage Banjalung language revival. It was undertaken in 1983 at the request of Southern Cross University (then Northern Rivers CAE) and local community members.

Communication gaps in seventeenth century Britain: Explaining legal Scots to English practitioners

by Joanna Kopaczyk

Through a detailed etymological, lexicographic and semantic analysis, this paper addresses communication gaps... more Through a detailed etymological, lexicographic and semantic analysis, this paper addresses communication gaps resulting from two different legal traditions after the English and the Scots had found themselves ruled by the same monarch. I look at one of the earliest glossaries of Scots legal terms, a relatively unknown appendix to Sir George Mackenzie's The Institutions of the Law of Scotland from the 1690s, comprising 184 genre-specific Scots lexical items and expressions. I work within a pragmaphilological approach, analysing what seemed unknown to the ears and eyes of English lawyers, and for what reason it was glossed. The final results are intriguing: 40% of the glossary is linked with the Scottish legal system and terminology, 49% belongs to non-legal regional vocabulary, and 11% provides insight into conceptual gaps between the Scots and the English, not necessarily in the area of the law.

(Draft) Two groups, two worlds: Italian and German in Bozen (South Tyol)

by Chiara Meluzzi

Paper presented at the International Workshop "Marginalization Processes", Orebro (Sweden), 26-28 April 2012

This study deals with the linguistic situation existing in the multilingual town of Bozen (South Tyrol). Due to the... more This study deals with the linguistic situation existing in the multilingual town of Bozen (South Tyrol). Due to the immigration of many Italian speakers from different regions of Italy, Bozen has changed its traditional German facie. Today Bozen is the most important town in the South Tyrol Italian region. Although German is the official language spoken in Bozen, Italian turns out to be the main spoken language. A process of unification between German people and Italian people living in Bozen has been starting for a few years; however dynamics of exclusion and even segregation are still going on. This study aims at investigating the sociolinguistic dynamics existing in Bozen, taking into special consideration the relationships between these two linguistic groups. A corpus consisting of more or less 50 interviews was collected, relating to the aforementioned dynamics, by using both sociolinguistic and folk linguistic methodological frameworks. The analysis run on the speakers’ language attitudes (the first analysis of this sort ever taken up on Bozen) seems to endorse the hypothesis that a dynamic of segregation between these two linguistic groups is still present in some districts of the town. Moreover, this segregation condition affects people’s linguistic perception of the linguistic “other”, making it difficult for them to learn the other group’s language. This is especially true as far as Italian speakers who aim at learning German are concerned.

Some Remarks on Linguistic Aspects of Religion

by Piotr Blumczynski

Published in Anglica Wratislaviensia XLVIII (2010), 87–95.

Religion is vitally bound to language in various and intricate ways. On the most obvious level, a number of religions... more Religion is vitally bound to language in various and intricate ways. On the most obvious level, a number of religions have a sacred language in which their sacred writings are recorded or in which religious rites are performed. The linguistic dimension of religion, however, extends far beyond the use of a particular natural language in liturgical contexts and it is the extent of this dimension that this paper attempts to outline (though, because of the vastness of the problem involved on the one hand and the unrelenting space limitations on the other, the following remarks shall be confined mostly to the Christian religion and based on predominantly Polish language data). The areas dicussed include the spelling convention, lexis and phraseology, grammar, imagery and the concept of "religiolect."

Critically “Kanak”: A Reimagination of German Culture1

by Yasemin Yildiz

Why are the Native Languages of the Chinese Malaysians in Decline?

by Tze Wei Sim

published in 'Journal of Taiwanese Vernacular' Vol.4, No. 1, 2012

The vast majority of Chinese Malaysians have originated from south China with their native languages, Hokkien, Hakka,... more The vast majority of Chinese Malaysians have originated from south China with their native languages, Hokkien, Hakka, Cantonese, Teochew, Hokchew and Hainanese. Most of these native languages are weakening due to lack of intergenerational transmission. Languages spoken in the families are largely shifting to Mandarin and English. This paper has investigated the reasons why the community is shifting away from their native languages. Language attitudes, beliefs, and ideologies held by the majority of Chinese Malaysians have been collected and they are presented together with the historical development of Chinese languages. The origins of the factors, which put their native languages into disadvantageous positions, are discussed. This paper also explores the possibilities of running language revitalization programmes in the community.

Selftubes: Construction of Identities in Web Porn [Selftubes: konštrukcia identít vo webovom porne]

by Michal Bočák

Bočák, Michal. 2012. "Selftubes: Construction of Identities in Web Porn." Paper presented at conference Media and Text 3, Veľký Šariš (Slovakia), 21st – 22nd October 2010. [Paper in Slovak submitted for review.]

This study presents results of the qualitative analysis of constructions of identities in heterosexual pornographic... more This study presents results of the qualitative analysis of constructions of identities in heterosexual pornographic videos’ titles on pornographic websites (tubes). Conceptualising porn as a contemporary Western androcentric discourse of sexuality, the author argues that if porn ought to appeal to socially determined desires of its consumers, it can’t be done only by shooting the bodies in detail: it has to represent identities as “ready-made”, widely shared social categories – these are what assign the status of imaginable social situation to (otherwise “mechanical”) sex act. Moreover, in a pornographised culture which is accepting a pornographic logic also beyond the pornosphere it can be reasoned that the porn partakes on re-/defining of identities (meaning not only genders and desires) significantly. The analysis of porn videos’ titles clearly confirms an introductory theoretical conceptualisation of the identity/subjectivity as an unstable, situational entity as well as it proves the multiplicity and intersectionality of identity, stated by its present theories. It appears notably in the systematic power structuring of the intersections of gender, racial/ethnic, age and other social categories, which actually are, according to the author of the study, naturalising the central gender asymetry and the androcentric order.

Keywords: pornography – porn – web – subject – identity – construction – video’s title – intersectionality – asymetry – androcentrism

A narrative community

by Chaim Noy

Tsotsitaal as performed discursive identity: the impact of the social context on a ‘stylect’.

by ellen hurst

2010  Joint panel for the Conference of the German Association for African Studies (VAD) and the 19. Afrikenistentag, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany 7th-11th April.

Based on a recent investigation into the use of Tsotsitaal in Cape Town, and following on from Mesthrie (2008), Hurst... more Based on a recent investigation into the use of Tsotsitaal in Cape Town, and following on from Mesthrie (2008), Hurst (2009), and Mesthrie & Hurst (forthcoming), this paper outlines the argument for the term ‘stylect’ to describe the nature of a particular group of urban varieties that can broadly be classified as tsotsitaals. It is argued that tsotsitaals involve more than just linguistics: that they draw on other symbolic performances of identity such as body language, clothing, and other facets of what could commonly be called ‘style’. It is argued that a linguistic phenomenon that can be classed as a stylect is more than merely a ‘slang’, but not a ‘language’: it is a performed discursive act of styling to constitute identity.
The particular identities constituted through the use of Tsotsitaal in South Africa are outlined in terms of, on the one hand, their historical continuity and on the other hand their specific contemporality. The relations between the spectrum of tsotsitaal subcultures, and the trajectory of apartheid and democracy in South Africa are outlined, in order to demonstrate the intimate relationship between urban languages and both national and global discourses.
Hurst, E. (2009) Tsotsitaal, global culture and local style: identity and recontextualisation in twenty-first century South African townships. Accepted for publication in Social Dynamics, September issue.
Mesthrie, R. (2008)  “I’ve been speaking Tsotsitaal all my life without knowing it”: towards a unified account of Tsotsitaals in South Africa.  In M. Meyerhoff and N. Nagy (eds.) Social Lives in Language.  New York: Benjamins, New York: 95-109.
Mesthrie, R. & Hurst, E. (forthcoming) Cape Town Tsotsitaal: a challenge to previous characterisations of tsotsitaals in South Africa.

Tsotsitaal, global culture and local style: identity and recontextualisation in twenty-first century South African townships.

by ellen hurst

2009 Social Dynamics,35:2,244 — 257

Tsotsitaal is a linguistic phenomenon which is inseparable from a style adopted by many youth living in urban... more Tsotsitaal is a linguistic phenomenon which is inseparable from a style adopted by many youth living in urban townships in South Africa. The style is signalled by the unique and innovative lexicon of Tsotsitaal, and additionally indicated by clothing and other identity markers. Features of the style are ‘urban-ness’, consumerism (in terms of brand names) and cultural iconography, such as music and sports. While many of these items are influenced by, or even drawn from,global cultures (particularly in the diaspora), they are transformed into uniquely South African cultural currency by a process of recontextualisation in township spaces and between individuals. There has been a dialogue between the Tsotsitaal style and the global since at least the 1940s, which should put to rest fears that increased global influence since the end of apartheid will diminish the integrity of local South African cultures.

Özerk Benlik Gelişimi ve Yabancı Dilde Eğitim

by Sedat KARAGÜL

The Impasse of Political Transition in Algeria

by Abed Ayyad

This paper was written by Abdel Nasser Jaby for the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies

This paper takes as its starting point the Arab Spring which began in 2011. It goes on to describe the spread of... more This paper takes as its starting point the Arab Spring which began in 2011. It goes on to describe the spread of youth-driven political uprisings throughout the Arab region, and examines why these did not spread to Algeria, despite the success of the Tunisian revolution.

Categorizar a través del habla: la construcción interactiva de la extranjeridad

by Eva Codó

Co-authored with Virgina Unamuno, published in Discurso & Sociedad, 2007

Partimos del supuesto teórico y metodológico de que el estudio del lenguaje aporta una mirada fundamental a la... more Partimos del supuesto teórico y metodológico de que el estudio del lenguaje aporta una mirada fundamental a la comprensión de los fenómenos sociales. Este supuesto implica, por un lado, trabajar de forma precisa con datos lingüísticos, y por otro, evitar la reducción o simplificación de los procesos discursivos que materializan los procesos sociales (Heller, 2001a). En el presente trabajo, estudiamos la construcción de la extranjeridad (Mondada, 1999) en interacciones entre personas nacidas en Barcelona y personas provenientes de fuera del territorio español, en el marco de dos contextos a priori diversos: la escuela y el servicio de documentación de extranjeros. Para llevar a cabo este análisis, partimos del estudio de la orientación y el tratamiento interaccional por parte de los locutores de las formas de habla propias y ajenas. Al focalizar la construcción local de la experticia lingüística, nos adentramos en diferentes procedimientos que los interlocutores ponen en práctica para hacer relevante o para rechazar la categoría “extranjero”, como por ejemplo, el extrañamiento del habla, y la asignación o la negación de competencias en lengua, sean autóctonas o en lengua franca. Según nuestro análisis, la viabilidad de estos procedimientos no sólo depende de cuestiones intrínsecamente conversacionales, sino también de relaciones de poder que se materializan discursivamente y que exhiben relaciones complejas entre lengua, categorías y exclusión social.


We depart from the theoretical and methodological assumption that the study of language throws fundamental light onto the understanding of social phenomena. This assumption implies, on the one hand, that we need to examine linguistic data in detail, and on the other, that we must avoid the simplification of the discursive processes that materialize social processes (Heller, 2001a). In the present study we investigate the construction of the category “foreign” (Mondada, 1999) in interactions between individuals born in Barcelona and others born outside Spain in two a priori different contexts: a school and a foreigners’ documentation service. In our analysis, we investigate the ways in which speakers orient to their own and others’ forms of speech and how they handle them interactionally. By focusing on the local construction of linguistic expertise, we try to elucidate what procedures are put into practice to make the category “foreign” relevant or reject it, such as “strangifying” speech, and allocating or denying language competence, either in a local language or in a lingua franca. In our analysis, the success of these procedures does not depend on conversational aspects only but on power relationships which become materialised discursively and which show complex relationships between language, categories and social exclusion.

"Why Do You Write Your Name Long Like That?" Language and Literacy In a San Francisco Kindergarten

by Espen Helgesen

Unpublished Master's Thesis, University of Bergen 2008

In this thesis I investigate the role of language awareness in early literacy, and argue that skills acquired when... more In this thesis I investigate the role of language awareness in early literacy, and argue that skills acquired when becoming literate can provide resources for manipulating social as well as textual relations. Based on ethnographic research among a group of 5- and 6-year old kindergartners in a San Francisco public school, I describe how the kids' personal names provided them with stable landmarks with which to explore both oral and written language. The capacity of names to facilitate communication was, however, countered by the equally powerful capacity of names to obstruct communication. Presenting the kids' personal names as examples of how language is often polysemic, or ambiguous, I argue that, even if the words they used did not have a singular meaning, they were often treated as if they did. I argue that there was a mismatch between two dominant perspectives on names among the kindergartners. Whereas some of the kids primarily used names as markers of identity, others challenged this stability by manipulating names in what I refer to as name joking; the playful manipulation of phonemes or letters for humorous effect. The assumed fixity of names seemed to make them particularly suitable for joking purposes, and a tension could often be found between the kids who considered names to be attached to individuals, and those who considered names to be detached or detachable from individuals. I argue that metalinguistic awareness, understood as the ability to attend to elements of language as objects, was a prerequisite for name joking. Rather than emphasizing this single skill, however, I argue that the kids' different perspectives on language was the product of a difference in communicative flexibility. As such, the kids who were able to switch between considering names to be attached and to be detached from people had a distinct advantage both in conversation and play among the kindergartners. Although teachers encouraged the kids to consider language to be a fluid and flexible tool, they also treated language as a direct reflection of reality by responding with sanctions when the kids used what was referred to as "bad words".

Girls, identities and digital literacy practices

by Dimitrios Koutsogiannis

Abstract: This paper focuses on the ways girls use digital environments, like Word, PowerPoint and chatting... more Abstract: This paper focuses on the ways girls use digital environments, like Word, PowerPoint and chatting programmes, for writing and communication purposes. By combining quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis and by adopting a critical discourse framework, we will explore the relationship between girls and new media, especially the ones related to digital writing, in terms of three interconnected variables. The first one is related to the role of the two most important socialisation institutions, home and school, at the present historical juncture, characterised by intense mobility and an expansion of traditional forms of literacy. The strategic choices of the girls’ families and their schools’ teaching practices contributed significantly to the formulation of their digital writing practices. The second variable is gender. Our data clearly show
that a substantial number of girls were more inclined than their male peers to use word-processing and presentation software, performing, thus, the school discourses of ‘diligent students’. The third key variable concerns the personality of the girls who filtered in their own unique ways their social experiences, overcame limitations, took initiatives and appropriated technologically-mediated writing media for personally meaningful ends that enhanced their school and/or entertainment Discourses.

Darfur: Ground Zero for Africa’s Crises of Identity

by Patrick James Christian

A psycho-Historiography of Darfur's Tribes in Conflict
Nova Southeastern University Graduate School of Humanities & Social Science, Department of Conflict Analysis & Resolution

Introduction 2
Darfur: A Broken Place 3
Identity Disintegration in Darfur 5
Applying identity conflict theory 6
The Arabs 8
Arab Identity Subordination of Islam 9
Arab Hierarchical Ownership of the Islamic Ummah 10
Islamic Universality and the Fractured Identity of Arab Muslims 10
Islamic Universality of Ethnic Inclusion versus African Diffusion 12
The Africans 12
The Language of Religion and of Slaves 17
Islam and Paganism: the Sacred and the profane in Contest in Darfur 18
Law & Social Order: Sharia versus African Communal Justice 20
Psychological and Emotional Trauma as Spoilers to Identity Definition 22
“Intervention” Resolving Identity Conflict & Managing Psychological Trauma 24
Securing the Population 24
Stabilizing the Population 25
Rebuilding the Psycho-Sociological Structures of Human Societies 26
Conclusion 27
References 29
Notes 36

Diplomatic and peacekeeping initiatives by the international community in emerging cultures in conflict have failed to... more Diplomatic and peacekeeping initiatives by the international community in emerging cultures in conflict have failed to stem the violence and resolve the underlying conditions. Based primarily on political analysis, such initiatives do not address the underlying causes of the civil war at the individual, family, and tribal levels. This paper examines the psychological and sociological motivations for the violence within and between the Arab and African tribes of Darfur, to include motivation exploration of ethnic defections, failing cultural identity markers, and the effects of cognitive dissonance of the personal and social identities of the Darfur tribes. Research suggests that the identities of the African and Arab tribes are deeply contested over ethnicity, tribalism, religion, race and the generational memory that historical narratives provide. This fundamental identity conflict is overlaid by decades of violent physical, psychological and emotional assault upon the population. The result is a fundamental change of the psycho-sociology of tribal life and threatens disintegration and disestablishment of large group identity. The resulting societal and leadership breakdown of and within the tribes creates conditions of warlord-ism commonly found in ungoverned states such as Somalia. The paper concludes that the international community will ultimately fail unless measures are taken to create conditions for survival of the tribes physically, psychologically and sociologically.

Singing the nation: Discourses of identity and community in northern Namibia

by Wendi Haugh

2005 - Dissertation in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania

This study examines discourses about the nation in songs composed and performed by young people living in a former... more This study examines discourses about the nation in songs composed and performed by young people living in a former ethnic homeland in recently independent Namibia. In the multidisciplinary scholarship on nationalism, the efforts of nationalist leaders, intellectuals, and officials have figured prominently, but it is equally crucial to study the perspectives of those they seek to shape or mobilize. How do they imagine the nation? In what style do they claim national identities or construct national communities? To address this question, I recorded and analyzed naturally occurring discourse about the nation in Owambo between August 1997 and November 1998. Owambo is a relatively densely populated area on the northern border whose residents have been centrally involved in the migrant labor economy and the nationalist movement. Nearly all identified as Christian, and associated Christianity with education, biomedicine, and other aspects of ‘modernity’ opposed to ‘pagan’ or ‘traditional’ ways of life. I focus in particular on songs composed and performed by members of the Namibian Catholic Youth League. I discuss the grammatical and metaphorical construction of the nation, the relationship between national and Christian communities, and the resonance between nationalist and indigenous political discourses. I found that the nation portrayed in NACAYUL songs could be understood in terms familiar from Richard Handler’s study of Québecois nationalist discourse, though in this case as a collective individual which owned resources rather than took action, and a collection of individuals who shared material interests rather than culture or language. NACAYUL members also imagined Namibia as both modern and Christian, situating it simultaneously within a transnational Christian community and an international system of nation-states, and linking the health of the nation to the faith of its members. Finally, they drew on indigenous discourses about the collective ownership of clans and the religious, political, and economic leadership of kings in imagining the nation as owner and the president as leader. The result is a locally specific and distinctively modern vision of the nation.