Double-voicing in the everyday language of Brazilian black activism
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Jennifer Roth-Gordon
Abstract
In this study of the daily linguistic practices of Brazilian black activists, we draw on Jane Hill’s well-known research on voice to interrogate how speakers metalinguistically invoke “competing” points of view. Bringing together research conducted at the height of politically conscious hip hop’s success in the late 1990s in Rio de Janeiro and fieldwork conducted with race-based community organizations in Salvador, Bahia in 2009–2010, we argue that speakers actively counterpose “racist” and “anti-racist” voices – often within a single translinguistic word – in their quest to display racial consciousness. Embracing similar linguistic processes, political opponents of race-based policies draw different battle lines within the same words, interpreting the struggle as one between North American and Brazilian understandings of race and racism.
Abstract
In this study of the daily linguistic practices of Brazilian black activists, we draw on Jane Hill’s well-known research on voice to interrogate how speakers metalinguistically invoke “competing” points of view. Bringing together research conducted at the height of politically conscious hip hop’s success in the late 1990s in Rio de Janeiro and fieldwork conducted with race-based community organizations in Salvador, Bahia in 2009–2010, we argue that speakers actively counterpose “racist” and “anti-racist” voices – often within a single translinguistic word – in their quest to display racial consciousness. Embracing similar linguistic processes, political opponents of race-based policies draw different battle lines within the same words, interpreting the struggle as one between North American and Brazilian understandings of race and racism.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Preface xi
- Introduction xxi
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Section 1. Approaches to the study of the indigenous languages of the Americas
- The diachrony of Ute case-marking 3
- Language contact as an inhibitor of sound change 29
- Stress in Yucatec Maya 53
- The phonetic correlates of Southern Ute stress 85
- Revisiting Tohono O’odham high vowels 107
- Head-marking inflection and the architecture of grammatical theory 133
- A case-study in grass roots development of web resources for language workers 175
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Section 2. Approaches to the study of voices and ideologies
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Language contact, shift, and endangerment – implications for policy
- Spanish in contact with indigenous tongues 203
- How can a language with 7 million speakers be endangered? 229
- A documentary ethnography of a Blackfoot language course 257
- Syncretic speech, linguistic ideology, and intertextuality 291
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Racism in discourse – analyses of practice
- Narrative discriminations in Central California’s indigenous narrative traditions 321
- The voice of (White) reason 339
- Double-voicing in the everyday language of Brazilian black activism 365
- Uptake (un)limited 389
- The silken cord 415
- Afterword 425
- Language index 431
- Subject index 433
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Preface xi
- Introduction xxi
-
Section 1. Approaches to the study of the indigenous languages of the Americas
- The diachrony of Ute case-marking 3
- Language contact as an inhibitor of sound change 29
- Stress in Yucatec Maya 53
- The phonetic correlates of Southern Ute stress 85
- Revisiting Tohono O’odham high vowels 107
- Head-marking inflection and the architecture of grammatical theory 133
- A case-study in grass roots development of web resources for language workers 175
-
Section 2. Approaches to the study of voices and ideologies
-
Language contact, shift, and endangerment – implications for policy
- Spanish in contact with indigenous tongues 203
- How can a language with 7 million speakers be endangered? 229
- A documentary ethnography of a Blackfoot language course 257
- Syncretic speech, linguistic ideology, and intertextuality 291
-
Racism in discourse – analyses of practice
- Narrative discriminations in Central California’s indigenous narrative traditions 321
- The voice of (White) reason 339
- Double-voicing in the everyday language of Brazilian black activism 365
- Uptake (un)limited 389
- The silken cord 415
- Afterword 425
- Language index 431
- Subject index 433
