Chronotopic translanguaging and the mobile languaging subject: insights from an Algerian academic sojourner in the UK

This study discusses the impact of spatial, temporal and virtual mobility on how mobile individuals talk about language in their world, and how they use language offline and online to communicate over time and across space. We introduce the notion of chronotopic translanguaging to highlight the significance of merging time and place in sociolinguistics. Doing so, we present a rather stretched understanding of time to include references to real time, online compressed time, linguistic ideologies and practices carried over time and challenged in recent times, as well as understanding time as an ecological factor. We interviewed Ekram, an Algerian academic sojourner, and observed her Facebook profile before and after coming to the UK. Our findings suggest that the networked lives of the participant beget fluid translanguaging practices that are constantly (re)negotiated depending to the ecology of interaction. Through entering and existing multiple time-space frames, Ekram found herself reunited with communicative repertoires she has not used for years. She also developed new relationships with other repertoires. This study concludes by emphasising the usefulness of chronotopic translanguaging as a conceptual tool that permits, and accounts for, the time-place influence on how mobile individuals deploy their communicative repertoires.

Subversive heteroglossia:

In the research on borderscapes, particularly in the Albanian-Greek borderland, explorations of identities and fluidity of socio-cultural boundaries play a key role. Based on several ethnographic interviews and participatory observation during short-term fieldwork in the Konitsa region of North-Western Greece, this study aims to explore the metalinguistic narratives of the local people coming from Albanian/Arvanitika-speaking families. We observe how Albanian and Greek language use is narrated across several generations of these families, shaping narratives of place-making and belonging. Drawing upon the theory of cultural intimacy, studies of linguistic ideologies, and discourse analysis, we examine the multiple controversies in our research participants’ metalinguistic narratives and indexical signs such as code-switching. Using an anthropological lens, we also trace how these people’s personal stories are affected by national discourses, and how the state’s discourses infiltrate local peoples’ metalinguistic narratives. As previous studies have shown, in a situation of heteroglossia, the low-prestige language is perceived “through the eyes” of the dominant language. Nonetheless, when subversive heteroglossiaoccurs, the dominant linguistic ideology is also internalized by the speakers, but it is deviated and reassessed in the attempt to build spaces of cultural intimacy.

Cinismo y «quinismo»: dos actitudes en la concepción de las lenguas en Cataluña

El cinismo y el quinismo son actitudes antitéticas que pueden materializarse discursivamente a través del grado de opinión de la modalidad epistémica. En este trabajo proponemos cuatro enunciados arquetípicos que representan múltiples opiniones respecto a la idoneidad o inconveniencia de que el catalán y el castellano acaparen los espacios y usos sociolingüísticos en Cataluña y en las cuales están presentes los componentes cínico y quínico. Estos elementos, que privilegian a una u otra lengua, no aparecen aisladamente, sino que se da una lucha entre ambas actitudes en la que una de ellas matiza la efectividad de la otra. Tomamos la perspectiva del Análisis Crítico del Discurso porque las ideologías que reproducen las relaciones de poder entre las lenguas se manifiestan discursivamente. Mediante esta perspectiva, dividimos los enunciados en segmentos separados ideológicamente y señalamos cuál de ellos se ha de atacar para construir ideologías lingüísticas favorables a la lengua minorizada. Cynicism and kynicism are antithetical attitudes which can discursively materialize through the opinion degree of the epistemic modality. In this paper, we propose four archetypical statements representing several opinions regarding the suitability and inconvenience of Spanish and Catalan languages about how they compete to monopolize sociolinguistic domains and uses in Catalonia. Cynical or kynical components are made clear in these sentences. These elements, which favour one or another language, do not appear in isolation, but there is a struggle between both attitudes in which one of them nuance the effectiveness of the other one. We take the Critical Discourse Analysis since the ideologies which reproduce the power relations between languages reveal themselves discursively. Through this perspective, we divide the sentences into ideologically separated segments and we point out which of them must be attacked to build favourable linguistic ideologies to the minoritized language.

Code-switching Llibre dels Fets: Language ideology in the 13th century Crown of Aragon

In this article, I explore code-switching in Llibre dels Fets (a 13th century chronicle that narrates the life and deeds of king James I of Aragon) from a glottopolitical perspective in order to uncover the linguistic ideologies reflected in the text through this phenomenon. Code-switching in contemporary Romance languages, as well as in Latin and Arabic, is found throughout the text, mostly within reported speech. Through the analysis of these fragments and the analysis of the labels used to refer to each of these varieties, it is shown that: (i) different varieties are used to express either allegiance (Catalan and Occitan) or opposition (Western Ibero-Romance) to the figure of the King, and that that Aragonese was erased as a language of the Crown of Aragon; (ii) code-switching in Latin is used to confer authority to the discourse; (iii) code-switching in the Romance languages is a mechanism to express group membership; and finally (iv) that mutual intelligibility between Catalan and the attested contemporary Romance varieties is assumed at the time of composition of the text.

Diversity, Inclusivity, and the Importance of L2 Speaker Legitimacy

This commentary builds on the work presented in Mori et al. (this volume) and considers diversity and inclusivity in the context of L2 speaker legitimacy in Japanese-language education. A discussion of linguistic ideologies, native speaker bias, language ownership, and speaker legitimacy is followed by a brief introduction of key research findings which demonstrate the persistence of native speaker bias for L2 speakers of Japanese. I argue that as Japanese-language educators, we must make a commitment to overcoming native speaker bias with regard to each other and especially with regard to our students. I conclude with some suggestions of steps we can take to become models for our students and demonstrate the legitimation of speakers regardless of linguistic background, so that we may begin to eliminate native speaker bias in our profession and in our classrooms.

Our Language—Linguistic Ideologies and Japanese Dialect Use in L1/L2 Interaction

This study uses conversation data and ethnographic interviews to examine the role of meta-talk in speaker legitimacy for L2 Japanese speakers. Autoethnographic analysis of conversation data demonstrates how an L2 speaker is co-constructed (jointly positioned) as a (non)legitimate speaker of Japanese Dialect. The researcher, an L2 Japanese speaker, recorded Japanese conversations with L1 interlocutors, namely, her L1 Japanese spouse and in-laws. Two contrasting cases of L2 Japanese Dialect use are examined. In the first case, L1 interlocutors respond to the L2 speaker’s dialect with meta-talk about “our language,” co-constructing the L2 speaker as a non-legitimate dialect user. In the second case, the L2 speaker’s dialect use is affirmed when the L1 interlocutor uses similar dialect; no meta-talk occurs. The conversation data is supplemented with ethnographic interview data which underscores the prevalence of meta-talk. Meta-talk reveals speakers’ beliefs about legitimate speakerhood in which “our language” does not include L2 speakers. Conversely, the absence of meta-talk affirms the L2 speaker’s dialect use and depicts dialect as a shared form of “our language.” This study contributes to understanding linguistic ideologies, demonstrates how language ownership and speaker legitimacy manifest in Japanese interactions, and adds to research examining Japanese Dialect use by L2 speakers.

The Impact of Race on Speech Perception and Accentedness Judgments in Racially Diverse and Non-Diverse Groups

Linguistic ideologies are informed by social stereotyping (Fiske et al. 2007) to maintain the standard variety, which is often interpreted as morally superior to nonstandard varieties (Hill 2008). Consequently, these ideologies racialize nonstandard varieties (Rosa 2016), leading to even more negative stereotypes (Giles & Watson 2013). One outlet of such stereotypes can be observed with accentism. This study examines whether seeing a White or a South Asian face impacts listeners’ perception of American, British, Indian English and to what extent listeners’ social network diversity plays a role in predicting their perception of speech. Results showed that intelligibility scores decreased and accentedness judgments increased for all varieties when speech was paired with South Asian faces. However, listeners who have racially less diverse social network have the highest accentedness judgments. Currently, there is a pressing question to understand how to account for the emergence of different English varieties and their differing pronunciations. Results here shed light on to how these varieties are perceived. The implications will be discussed in light of language teaching and linguistic practices.