Strange bedfellows: Appropriations of a tainted urban dialect¹

Abstract

Teenagers often appropriate dialect features they find attractive. This paper argues that unattractive dialect features can also become a target for teenage constructions of linguistic style. Based on an ethnographic case study at a multi-ethnic school in Antwerp, Belgium, it is shown that Antwerp dialect for non-white students conjured up angry white and/or racist voices, and that it was frequently stylised as a way of speaking associated with others. At the same time, however, these students produced stylisations that were in synchrony with their own voice and self-presentation when they recruited Antwerp dialect features to underline assertiveness and to distance themselves from recent, linguistically incompetent, arrivals. It is argued that Antwerp dialect's tainted connotations were outweighed by its value as a tool for shaping a working-class, non-immigrant identity.Tieners eigenen zich vaak dialectkenmerken toe die ze aantrekkelijk vinden. Dit artikel toont aan hoe ook onaantrekkelijke dialectkenmerken het doelwit kunnen vormen voor tieners wanneer ze hun talige stijl construeren. Gebaseerd op etnografisch veldwerk op een multi-etnische secundaire school in Antwerpen, België, zal aangetoond worden dat voor niet-blanke studenten het Antwerps dialect de stem opriep van boze blanken en/of racisten, en dat het regelmatig gestileerd werd als een manier van spreken die met anderen werd geassocieerd. Tegelijkertijd produceerden deze studenten echter stileringen die veeleer in harmonie waren met hun eigen stem en zelfpresentatie wanneer ze Antwerpse dialectkenmerken rekruteerden om assertiviteit te onderstrepen en zich te distantiëren van talig incompetente nieuwkomers. Er zal worden betoogd dat de gekleurde connotaties van het Antwerps dialect werden tenietgedaan vanwege z'n grote bruikbaarheid in de constructie van een uit Antwerpen afkomstige arbeidersidentiteit. [Dutch]

“Those foreigners ruin everything here”: Interactional functions of ethnic labelling among pupils in the Netherlands

“…Slootman, ). Similar practices have been observed in countries with comparable histories of immigration, such as Germany (Bozay, ), France (Simon, ), and Belgium (Jaspers, ). Labelling oneself anything other than Dutch has been implied to signal a strong identification with, and orientation to, the country of origin (e.g.…”

“…At this specific moment, and in this conversation with me, he prioritizes an ethno‐cultural category ( buitenlander “foreigner”) over a biographic one (“son”) in the characterization of the relationship between his father and himself (cf. Jaspers, ). Omer's introduction of this category enables him to take on the position of expert in this conversation because of his self‐claimed membership of this category, casting me as an unknowing outsider.…”

‘Don't speak like that to her!’: Linguistic minority children's socialization into an ideology of monolingualism

“…Older students draw on a range of linguistic resources for fun, to contest authorities, or to negotiate identities and group associations. They cross (Rampton ), stylize , and poly‐language (Møller and Jørgensen ), at the same time as they demonstrate an awareness of the institutionally recognized ways of speaking: that is, in a standard / majority‐language register (Jaspers , b).…”

The reflexive imperative among high-achieving adolescents

“…They recall the official rule that pupils and teachers should use Standard Dutch in all school contexts (explicitly in line 7, but also indirectly by means of a correction in line 6 and 9), which makes it hard for Ms. De Vos to sanction these playful utterances. In fact, using school rules seems to be a "legal" way to brighten up the lessons (as has been observed by -among others -D'Amato 1993; Jaspers 2011Jaspers , 2014, and therefore, the boys do not only use it in this lesson, but in several lessons where the relationship between them and the teacher is quite good.…”