Stylized voices of ethnicity and social division

TY - CHAP

T1 - Stylized voices of ethnicity and social division

AU - Madsen, Lian Malai

AU - Svendsen, Bente Ailin

PY - 2015/1/1

Y1 - 2015/1/1

N2 - In recent decades there has been a great deal of interest in speech stylization in sociolinguistics (e.g. Coupland 2007; Rampton 1995, 2006, 2009), i.e. instances where speakers produce ‘specially marked and often exaggerated representations of languages, dialects and styles that lie outside their own habitual repertoire (at least as this is perceived within the situation at hand)’ (Rampton 2009: 149). Stylized speech events involve projections of recognizable social personas different from the speaker, and represent as such ‘strategic inauthentic’ speech, bringing into play ‘stereotyped personas and genre’ derived ‘from well-known identity repertoires’ (Coupland 2007: 154). The interest for stylizations and their interactional functions has increased concurrently with the augmented diversification (Appadurai 1990; Vertovec 2010) of today's globalized societies, since stylized speech appears particularly well-tuned to the sociolinguistic complexities of contemporary urban settings (Blommaert and Rampton 2011; Jaspers 2010). In his analyses of stylized speech among British-born school children in multiethnic schools in London and in the South Midlands of England, Rampton (1995, 2006) unveils the indexical subtlety with which young people articulate their apprehensions of ‘us/them’-social relations, and of well-established and ongoing ‘high/low’ stratification processes (Rampton 2009; see also Madsen 2011). He demonstrates how stylized speech functions as a window to young people's perceptions of social class, a subject rarely discussed amongst young inner Londoners – ‘race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality were all much hotter topics’, as he puts it (Rampton 2006: 244; cf. Rampton 2009: 165). Although the young Londoners did not discuss social class to any degree, class hierarchy had a pervasive influence on their discursive consciousness or sociolinguistic ‘habitus’, exemplified through their routine phonological style shifting between standard and vernacular, and through their regular stylizations of Cockney versus ‘posh’ sounding voices (Rampton 2006: 239ff). In other words, Rampton (2006, 2009) shows that there might be a discrepancy between overt accounts of social differentiations and the perceptions of social stratification revealed through stylized voices.

AB - In recent decades there has been a great deal of interest in speech stylization in sociolinguistics (e.g. Coupland 2007; Rampton 1995, 2006, 2009), i.e. instances where speakers produce ‘specially marked and often exaggerated representations of languages, dialects and styles that lie outside their own habitual repertoire (at least as this is perceived within the situation at hand)’ (Rampton 2009: 149). Stylized speech events involve projections of recognizable social personas different from the speaker, and represent as such ‘strategic inauthentic’ speech, bringing into play ‘stereotyped personas and genre’ derived ‘from well-known identity repertoires’ (Coupland 2007: 154). The interest for stylizations and their interactional functions has increased concurrently with the augmented diversification (Appadurai 1990; Vertovec 2010) of today's globalized societies, since stylized speech appears particularly well-tuned to the sociolinguistic complexities of contemporary urban settings (Blommaert and Rampton 2011; Jaspers 2010). In his analyses of stylized speech among British-born school children in multiethnic schools in London and in the South Midlands of England, Rampton (1995, 2006) unveils the indexical subtlety with which young people articulate their apprehensions of ‘us/them’-social relations, and of well-established and ongoing ‘high/low’ stratification processes (Rampton 2009; see also Madsen 2011). He demonstrates how stylized speech functions as a window to young people's perceptions of social class, a subject rarely discussed amongst young inner Londoners – ‘race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality were all much hotter topics’, as he puts it (Rampton 2006: 244; cf. Rampton 2009: 165). Although the young Londoners did not discuss social class to any degree, class hierarchy had a pervasive influence on their discursive consciousness or sociolinguistic ‘habitus’, exemplified through their routine phonological style shifting between standard and vernacular, and through their regular stylizations of Cockney versus ‘posh’ sounding voices (Rampton 2006: 239ff). In other words, Rampton (2006, 2009) shows that there might be a discrepancy between overt accounts of social differentiations and the perceptions of social stratification revealed through stylized voices.

U2 - 10.1017/cbo9781139061896.015

DO - 10.1017/cbo9781139061896.015

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 9781107016989

SP - 207

EP - 230

BT - Language, Youth and Identity in the 21st Century

A2 - Nortier, Jacomine

A2 - A. Svendsen, Bente

PB - Cambridge University Press

ER -