Repping the streets, repping the hometown : a sociophonetic analysis of dialectal variation in the Moroccan hip hop community

The following study is a sociophonetic analysis of coronal stop affrication in the casual speech of four Moroccan rappers from two regions of the country: the cities of Salé and Casablanca, where the phoneme is /t/ is realized as the palato-alveolar affricate [tʃ], and the city of Meknès, where the phoneme /t/ is realized as the alveolar affricate [ts]. Casablanca and Salé host two of the most important rap scenes in the country, and Meknès hosts a significant, but less prominent, rap scene; this would suggest that the rappers from Meknès will attempt to access the Slaoui-Cassaoui variant [tʃ] in order to access the authenticity inherent in the more important rap scene’s street code. However, the varying attitudes between the two Meknassi rappers towards adopting the Slaoui-Cassaoui street code indicates a more complex construction of the notion of authenticity within the Moroccan Hip Hop community.Middle Eastern Studie

Creating a ‘new space’: code-switching among British-born Greek-Cypriots in London

This paper, located in the traditions of Interactional Sociolinguistics (Gumperz 1982) and Social Constructionism (Berger and Luckmann 1966), explores code-switching and identity practices amongst British-born Greek-Cypriots. The speakers, members of a Greek-Cypriot youth organization, are fluent in English and (with varying levels of fluency) speak the Greek-Cypriot Dialect. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of recordings of natural speech during youth community meetings and a social event show how a new ‘third space’ becomes reified through code-switching practices. By skilfully manipulating languages and styles, speakers draw on Greek-Cypriot cultural resources to accomplish two inter-related things. First, by displaying knowledge of familiar Greek-Cypriot cultural frames, they establish themselves as different from mainstream British society and establish solidarity as an in-group. Secondly, by using these frames in non-serious contexts, and at times mocking cultural attitudes and stereotypes, they challenge and re-appropriate their inherited Greek-Cypriot identity, thereby constructing the identity of British-born Greek-Cypriot youth

[v]at is going on? Local and global ideologies about Indian English

ABSTRACTThis article examines local and global language ideologies surrounding a particular phonetic feature in Indian English, the pronunciation of /v/ as [w]. By focusing on how local and global participants – both individuals and institutions – imagine language variation through disparate framings of “neutral” and “standard,” it highlights how processes of globalization and localization are interconnected, dialogic, and symbiotic. Compared are (i) sociolinguistic constructions of Indian cartoon characters, (ii) American “accent training” institutes, (iii) Indian call center and language improvement books, (iv) American speakers’ interpretations of merged IE speech, and, (v) IE speakers’ attitudes about IE, “neutral,” and ”standard” language. The relative social capital of these populations mediates both how each constructs its respective ideology about language variation, and how these ideologies dialogically interact with each other. (Language variation, language ideologies, dialogic, standard language)1</jats:p

Identity Performance in British Rock and Indie Music : Authenticity, Stylization, and Glocalization

This master’s thesis, departing from the work done by Peter Trudgill and Paul Simpson, aims at widening the scope of research on the identity performance of British rock and indie musicians by taking into account the influences and intersections of local and global social contexts. It not only analyzes the musicians’ accents but also focuses on their lyrics, music videos and statements in interviews. The different types of data are analyzed for references of place in relation to theories of discourse, stylization and authenticity. The thesis applies the concept of glocalization, which has been widely used in studies of hip hop music, to the genres rock and indie in order to explain how local and global forces influence discursive identity production, particularly in relation to popular culture. The first phase of the study is a lyrical analysis of five British bands. Based on the results of the first phase, three bands were chosen for in-depth multimodal discourse analysis in a second phase. Results show how the bands' identity performances were changed and (re)shaped over the course of their careers. The study reveals three different profiles of the approach to and the development of identity performance, highlighting the importance of individuality in the face of mass media. In all, with respect to methodology, the study illustrates the benefit of discourse-analytic case study for the investigation of identity performance by musical artists

Euro–English and Croatian national identity: are Croatian university students ready for English as a lingua franca?

Istraživanje koje se prikazuje imalo je za cilj utvrditi utjecaj globalizacije i hipotetskog nastanka tzv. euroengleskoga na stav Hrvata prema stranom akcentu. Budući da strani akcent odaje nacionalni identitet govornika, stupanj do kojeg se netko svjesno nastoji približiti izvornom izgovoru, odnosno sačuvati i pokazati vlastiti nacionalni identitet uvelike varira i ovisi o više faktora. Ovdje se promatra kako parametri kao što su spol, stupanj znanja engleskoga, sociolingvistički status govornikova regionalnog hrvatskog dijalekta, regionalni ponos te sklonost perfekcionizmu utječu na odnos ispitanika prema vlastitom izgovoru, nastavnicima engleskoga i neizvornim govornicima. Istraživanje je provedeno u obliku anonimnog desetominutnog upitnika provedenog na dobrovoljnoj osnovi za vrijeme redovite sveučilišne nastave. Obuhvatilo je 1461 studenta različitih sveučilišnih studija, a odgovori su analizirani pomoću softverskog paketa SPSS. Uočava se polarizacija između ’liberalnog’ i ’tradicionalnog’ pristupa akcentu, tj. govornika kojima ne smeta regionalna i nacionalna prepoznatljivost u izgovoru i onih koji takva obilježja nastoje prikriti. Pokazuje se da to najviše ovisi o izboru studija, tj. buduće struke kao i samoprocijenjenoga stupnja kvalitete vlastitoga engleskoga izgovora, dok spol, regionalno podrijetlo ispitanika i stupanj perfekcionizma igraju nešto manju ulogu. Ti rezultati pripisuju se različitim uzrocima. Tvrdi se da su studenti engleskoga i općenito studenti koji su na višoj razini znanja engleskoga u tom smislu tradicionalniji zbog pristupa u njihovu poučavanju engleskomu u Hrvatskoj, kojim se propisuje što je ’pravi’ engleski. Također se pokazuje da su spol, samoprocijenjeni perfekcionizam i regionalna pripadnost povezani sa sklonošću da se procjenjuje sebe ili drugoga u odnosu na ono što je ’ispravno’. Tako žene nastoje postići ono što drušvo definira ispravnim, perfekcionisti ono šo sami vjeruju da je ispravno, a ispitanici iz urbanih sredina prosuđju druge prema onome šo urbana populacija smatra da je ispravno. Budući da se pokazuje jasna veza izmeđ uočnih stavova i dožvljaja vlastitoga identiteta u raznim drušvenim ulogama, na osnovi ovih rezultata zagovara se pristup ELF u okviru stratificiranoga modela, koji uzima u obzir sve navedene razlike.The present research establishes the impact of globalisation and the possible emergence of a Euro–English on the attitude of Croats towards their foreign accent. As one’s foreign accent gives away one’s national identity, the extent to which one strives to approach native–like pronunciation or preserve and display features of one’s national identity varies considerably and depends on a number of factors. We look at how gender, proficiency in English, the sociolinguistic status of the subject’s regional dialect of Croatian, regional pride, and perfectionism determine the way in which the subjects view their own production, teaching models and non–native speakers. It is shown that there is a clear divide between ’liberal’ and ’traditional’ students with regard to ELF, which is connected primarily with student profiles and self–assessed pronunciation proficiency. Gender, regional provenance and self–assessed perfectionism also play a role, but to a smaller extent. All these issues seem to be connected with the construction of identity in various societal roles

Constructed Languages and Their Role in Drama

This paper covers the history and use of constructed language and dialect on stage and screen as well as the issues that arise concerning social awareness and intellectual property

Media Influence on Implicit and Explicit Language Attitudes

Sociolinguists often assume that media influences language attitudes, but that assumption has not been tested using a methodology that can attribute cause. This dissertation examines implicit and explicit attitudes about American Southern English (ASE) and the influence television has upon them. Adapting methodologies and constructs from sociolinguistics, social psychology, and communications studies, I test listener attitudes before and after exposure to stereotypically unintelligent and counterstereotypically intelligent representations of Southern-accented speakers in scripted fictional television. The first attitudes experiment tests implicit attitudes through an Implicit Association Test (IAT). This experiment also serves to test sociolinguistic use of the IAT with a more holistic accent as opposed to single linguistic features. The second attitudes experiment tests the effect of television exposure on explicit attitudes towards an ASE-accented research assistant (RA). The experiments also investigate the influence of listener knowledge of regional origin of actors (speaker information), listener perception of how closely television represents the world around them (perceived realism), listener exposure to the South, and listener identity. The hypothesis is that those who hear counterstereotypically intelligent Southern characters will rate a Southern-accented research assistant higher in intelligence than those who hear stereotypically unintelligent Southern characters. The same pattern will hold in the auditory-based IAT. Accents in both the implicit and explicit attitudes experiments are viewed holistically, including multiple features rather than focusing on the most salient features. To clarify results related to the speaker information and perceived realism variables, a separate experiment tests how successful listeners are at differentiating natives from performers of regionally accented American English. Results indicate that televised representations of Southern accents affect explicit, but not implicit attitudes. Participants who heard intelligent Southern characters rated an ASE-accented RA higher in competence than those who heard unintelligent Southern characters. Several demographic variables influenced results regardless of the stereotypicality of the speakers that the listener heard in the television clips, including self-identified race and exposure to Southern television. While implicit attitudes were not affected by television in this case, the IAT was successfully adapted for use with a holistic accent rather than a single feature and also captures associations between an L1 regional accent and a specific stereotype of that accent. I discuss these results in regard to language attitudes at large as well as their implications for an indirect language change model, the Associative-Propositional Evaluation (APE) model of attitudes, and cultivation theory. The dissertation argues that scripted television does influence language attitudes, but in more complex ways than a simple cause-and-effect relationship. While television can affect explicit attitudes towards individual speakers, implicit attitude shift is more difficult and may need more time and/or need a direct cause for a shift to occur. Regardless of media influence, language attitudes are affected by identity and demographic features listeners bring into the interaction with speakers.PHDLinguisticsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146019/1/heheaton_1.pd