Wallah. Indexing the new locality

TY - ABST

T1 - Wallah. Indexing the new locality

AU - Skovse, Astrid Ravn

PY - 2016/8/8

Y1 - 2016/8/8

N2 - This paper aims to add new, empirically based insights to the understanding of the dynamics by which linguistic features come to index locality. It does so through examining the indexicalities of the term wallah among adolescents living in the suburban, multi-ethnic Danish neighborhood Vollsmose. The paper shows how the term wallah, by being emblematic of the enregistered voices of somewhat competing, locally constructed characterological figures (Agha 2005), comes to serve as an index of highly specific kinds of locality. The data comes from an experimental mapping method tapping into informants’ sense of place, as well as from informants’ metapragmatic commentaries about wallah, and their use of the term in peer interaction. The paper concludes that, while not being a local feature in the traditional, dialectological sense – as it plays a central role in the linguistic practice of young people in a wide range of multi-ethnic settings in Scandinavia – wallah is nevertheless capable of indexing both local and supralocal sociolinguistic scales at once, reflecting the multiscalarity of the “new localities” of globalization (Blommaert 2010). By considering the possibility of features indexing a range of scales at once, the paper strives to treat such multiscalar places, and the linguistic practices associated with them, in their own right, rather than as exceptions to a sedentaristic rule.

AB - This paper aims to add new, empirically based insights to the understanding of the dynamics by which linguistic features come to index locality. It does so through examining the indexicalities of the term wallah among adolescents living in the suburban, multi-ethnic Danish neighborhood Vollsmose. The paper shows how the term wallah, by being emblematic of the enregistered voices of somewhat competing, locally constructed characterological figures (Agha 2005), comes to serve as an index of highly specific kinds of locality. The data comes from an experimental mapping method tapping into informants’ sense of place, as well as from informants’ metapragmatic commentaries about wallah, and their use of the term in peer interaction. The paper concludes that, while not being a local feature in the traditional, dialectological sense – as it plays a central role in the linguistic practice of young people in a wide range of multi-ethnic settings in Scandinavia – wallah is nevertheless capable of indexing both local and supralocal sociolinguistic scales at once, reflecting the multiscalarity of the “new localities” of globalization (Blommaert 2010). By considering the possibility of features indexing a range of scales at once, the paper strives to treat such multiscalar places, and the linguistic practices associated with them, in their own right, rather than as exceptions to a sedentaristic rule.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - Indexicality

M3 - Conference abstract for conference

T2 - InCoLaS PhD Seminar

Y2 - 8 August 2016 through 10 August 2016

ER -