"This migrants' babble is not a German dialect!"

  • This article investigates a public debate in Germany that put a special spotlight on the interaction of standard language ideologies with social dichotomies, centering on the question of whether Kiezdeutsch, a new way of speaking in multilingual urban neighbourhoods, is a legitimate German dialect. Based on a corpus of emails and postings to media websites, I analyse central topoi in this debate and an underlying narrative on language and identity. Central elements of this narrative are claims of cultural elevation and cultural unity for an idealised standard language High German', a view of German dialects as part of a national folk culture, and the construction of an exclusive in-group of German' speakers who own this language and its dialects. The narrative provides a potent conceptual frame for the Othering of Kiezdeutsch and its speakers, and for the projection of social and sometimes racist deliminations onto the linguistic plane.

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Metadaten
Author details:Heike WieseGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-414764
DOI:https://doi.org/10.25932/publishup-41476
ISSN:1866-8380
Title of parent work (English):Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Philosopische Fakultät
Subtitle (English):the interaction of standard language ideology and 'us'/'them' dichotomies in the public discourse on a multiethnolect
Publication series (Volume number):Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Philosophische Reihe (157)
Publication type:Postprint
Language:English
Date of first publication:2019/02/12
Publication year:2015
Publishing institution:Universität Potsdam
Release date:2019/02/12
Tag:Kiezdeutsch
dialect; othering; public discourse; racism by proxy; standard language ideology
Issue:157
Number of pages:28
Source:Language in Society 44 (2015), pp. 341–368 DOI 10.1017/S0047404515000226
Organizational units:Philosophische Fakultät
DDC classification:4 Sprache / 40 Sprache / 400 Sprache
Peer review:Referiert
Publishing method:Open Access
Grantor:Cambridge University Press (CUP)
License (German):License LogoKeine öffentliche Lizenz: Unter Urheberrechtsschutz
External remark:Bibliographieeintrag der Originalveröffentlichung/Quelle
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