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Not a white girl and speaking English with slang: Negotiating Hmong American identities in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

  • Rika Ito EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: August 18, 2020
Multilingua
From the journal Multilingua Volume 40 Issue 3

Abstract

This paper analyzes metalinguistic comments of two young Hmong Americans in the Minneapolis-St Paul area regarding their identity negotiation using tactics of intersubjectivity (Bucholtz & Hall 2004a, 2004b, 2005), the notion of brought-along identity (Williams 2008) and Zhang's (2017) sociohistorical perspectives in analyzing linguistic variation. Two Hmong American individuals were selected from over 60 Hmong American interviewees because their vowel production is nearly identical to each other and that of the local white youth. Although their almost identical vowel production is viewed as their acculturation to the local white majority norm in the first- and second-wave variationist sociolinguistic perspective (Eckert 2012), their speech's characterization reveals a range of potential meanings (Eckert 2008) to index nuanced and unique positions in their local community. The young woman is ambivalent about her speech being characterized as “not having an accent” and claims that she is “not a white girl”. The teenage boy discusses his speech as “Hmonglish” and “English with slang” but carefully distances himself from quintessential African American English. While their characterization of their speech is distinct from each other, their tactics are strikingly similar. Through highlighting and downplaying differences and similarities to a locally salient way of speaking that indexes whiteness or blackness, the two Hmong Americans carve out their own complex identities of race, ethnicity, gender, and class in a local setting.

Keywords: Asian Americans; Hmong; identity; metalinguistics; tactics of intersubjectivity; brought-along identity; sociohistorical perspectives
Corresponding author: Rika Ito, Asian Studies, Saint Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, USA, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

My sincere thanks go to the journal’s editor and an anonymous reviewer for their valuable suggestions and comments on the earlier version of this paper. I want to thank all the undergraduate students involved in this project throughout the years, especially Ka Zoua Xiong and Jay Xiong, for their role as fieldworkers. Most importantly, I am greatly indebted to all Hmong American individuals who shared their stories with us. I want to dedicate this paper to them.

Appendix

Demographic data

  1. Gender: male female

  2. When is your birthday? (How old are you?)

  3. Are you (or parents) one of the following--employed, retired, seeking employment, in school, disabled?

  4. Which school did you attend? (for students, “Which school are you attending?”)

  5. How old were you when you entered the US?

  6. How many years have you lived in the US?

  7. Have you lived other than the Twin Cities area?

          If so,  (a) Where is it?

             (b) How long did you live in that city?

  8. How many people in your family?

          Tell me about your family members.

          Where do they live?

  9. What type of housing arrangement do you or your family have? --House? Apartment? Rent or own?

          Are you happy with your housing arrangement?

          Could you describe your neighborhood?

    Have you experienced some difficulties in the neighborhood? What was the occasion?

  10. Do you have relatives in your neighborhood? If so,

          (a) Who are they?

          (b) How often do you visit them? (Once a week, once a month, once a year?)

  11. Do you have close friends or coworkers (or classmates) in your neighborhood?

          Are they Hmong? How many are non-Hmong?

  12. How many Hmong families live near you?

  13. What is your current status in the US? (Temporary Resident, Permanent Resident, US citizen, Other?)

Language & friends & religion & ethnicity

  1. Do you speak Hmong? Which language do you feel more comfortable, Hmong or English? Do you speak any other languages?

  2. How did you learn Hmong?

    1. Do you know how to read and write Hmong?

    2. Where did you learn? How long?

    3. How do you assess your own skills in Hmong? (speaking, listening, writing, & reading)

    4. Do you think it’s important to learn Hmong to you? Why? Why not?

  3. How did you learn English?

    1. Did you receive any English language training (e.g. ESL class)?

    2. How do you describe your experience in learning English? Was it positive?

    3. How do you assess your own skills in English?

  4. Have you been teased by the way you speak English? When? By whom? What was your reaction?

  5. Have you been teased by the way you speak Hmong? When? By whom? What was your reaction?

  6. Think about your friends who you hang around with. How many of them are Hmong? (How many are non-Hmong?) What do you usually do with your close friends?

  7. What is the most important cultural event for you? Why?

  8. What is your religion? (If Christianity, which denomination? What was the occasion for conversion? Do you still participate in Hmong rituals?)

    • How is your religion important in your daily life?

    • How does your religion relate to your being Hmong? (More Hmong or less Hmong?)

  9. Have you experienced any difficulties adjusting to American life?

    • Tell me your story. How did you overcome such difficulties? (Or your parents story.)

  10. If you describe yourself, which one of them fits best? Hmong, American? Or Hmong-American? Why? (What makes you identify X, but not Y, or Z?)

  11. How do you feel about being Hmong (American, or Hmong-American) in St. Paul?

  12. What do you value most about Hmong culture? How about American culture? Why?

  13. Can you tell whether someone is Hmong American or not? By seeing the way they dress? By hearing the way speak (in English)?

  14. Is there any particular way of speaking that is common among people in the Twin Cities area?

  15. (Hmong spoken by X)

    1. Who speaks in HMONG to YOU & HOW OFTEN?

    2. Who do YOU speak in Hmong and how often?

    WHO?ALWAYSSOMETIMESNEVER
    (a) them(b) you(a) them(b) you(a) them(b) you
    Grandma

    Grandpa
    Dad

    Mom
    (husband/wife)
    Brothers & Sisters
    Hmong friends
    Colleagues at work
    Teachers/staff at school
    Other

  16. (English spoken by X)

    1. Who speaks in ENGLISH to YOU?

    2. Who do YOU speak in English and how often?

    WHO?ALWAYSSOMETIMESNEVER
    (a) them(b) you(a) them(b) you(a) them(b) you
    Grandma

    Grandpa
    Dad

    Mom
    (husband/wife)
    Brothers & Sisters
    Hmong friends
    Colleagues at work
    Teachers/staff at school
    Other

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Received: 2019-08-21
Accepted: 2020-06-11
Published Online: 2020-08-18
Published in Print: 2021-05-26

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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  5. Not a white girl and speaking English with slang: Negotiating Hmong American identities in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
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https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2019-0082
Keywords for this article
Asian Americans; Hmong; identity; metalinguistics; tactics of intersubjectivity; brought-along identity; sociohistorical perspectives

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Articles
  3. Value of communication, value of language: Nahuatl speakers and public health services in Sierra Norte de Puebla
  4. Laboring to communicate: Use of migrant languages in COVID-19 awareness campaign in Qatar
  5. Not a white girl and speaking English with slang: Negotiating Hmong American identities in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
  6. ‘Double deficit’ and exclusion: Mediated language ideologies and international students’ multilingualism
  7. Linguistic diversity and the court system in Dualist Hungary
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