Volume 32, Issue 5

Through a conversation analytic investigation of Finnish–Estonian bilingual (direct) reported speech (i.e., voicing) by Finns who live in Estonia, this study shows how code-switching is used as a double contextualization device. The code-switched voicings are shaped by the on-going interactional situation, serving its needs by opening up a context where the participants can engage in activities such as assessing the voice-persona, and renewing the current speech event by imposing a context of prior texts upon it. The study shows that code-switching can be used in an interactionally meaningful way even when a) the morphosyntactic and lexical border between the two languages is not strictly salient, and b) when the participants do not orient towards the two varieties as indexical of specific social groups or values associated with them. In light of these results, the conclusion is drawn that although the two languages are clearly interrelated for the speakers, Finns in Estonia still orient towards two relatively distinct sets of linguistic features and operate with this difference as a resource in interaction. These findings are discussed in light of recent sociolinguistic theories that find the opposition of two languages in conversation often to lack any meaning for the participants.

This paper advocates a new perspective on languages. It begins by demonstrating that, the occasional disavowals of sociolinguists notwithstanding, the lens through which we in the 21 st century, both specialists and laypeople, view languages is predominantly biological. It then suggests that this biological metaphor is conceptually unhelpful and potentially socially deleterious. The bulk of the paper presents and explores the metaphor of social venues as a more productive and empowering alternative: the presentation is through the example of language choice in multilingual settings; the exploration touches on a range of language contact and macro-sociolinguistic phenomena.

The complex notion of the public/private distinction of social spheres has not been systematically investigated in sociolinguistics; particularly in the case of bidialectal kindergarten age children and how they construct their social lives around this distinction in a public environment such as that of school. No simple continuum can clearly illustrate the distinction between public and private since the dividing line between the two is discursively renegotiated and recreated. Hence, the distinction between the two is normally characterised by fluidity rather than stability. This is the case in educational settings where it is firmly institutionalised. In this study, the public/private distinction is analysed as a communicative phenomenon in kindergarten children’s linguistic practices in two varieties. The data illustrate that young children separate their social spheres into ‘public’ and ‘private’ by skilfully employing linguistic variation. That said, the distinction children make between the two spheres is not always predictable, not only due to the instability in the boundaries that separate one sphere from the other but also due to differences in speakers’ linguistic ideologies regarding the use of specific varieties in certain communicative practices.

This paper discusses a language ideological debate that took place in Canadian national newspapers following the opening ceremonies for the 2011 Vancouver Olympics. Reports on the insufficient use of French during the opening ceremonies sparked protest from politicians, official commentators, citizens and online newsreaders alike. Previous research has suggested that language ideological ‘debates’ (i.e. overt manifestations of ideologies) are a useful site for studying the role that languages play in the construction of social groups (see Blommaert 1999a, b). In Canada, a national cliché is that Canadian identity is fractured both linguistically and geographically. Thus, the debate over the status of French in the Vancouver Olympics involves not only ideologies of language, but also ideologies of identity and belonging. An analysis of this language ideological debate, then, can shed light on the often naturalised and commonsensical understandings of Canadian national identity. The data consist of articles and commentary drawn from two national newspapers ( The Globe and Mail and Le Devoir ). The findings suggest some of the ways in which languages are represented as unifying and dividing characteristics of Canadian identity, representations of which often differ according to the language of the newspaper.

Indigenous children growing up in the remote regions of Australia live in multilingual communities which are often undergoing rapid language shift. In these communities, children are exposed to a range of language input, including the traditional language of the area, a local creole and Standard Australian English. The extent to which the different languages are used may vary by age of interlocutor as well as other factors. In this paper we examine the input to five children between the ages of two and four living in a small remote community. Recordings were made of each child interacting with caregivers of different ages to identify the range of language the children are exposed to. The majority of the input was in the local creole. This represents a rapid shift from the traditional language, Walmajarri, which was widely spoken when the community was established in the late 1980s. The majority of input in the traditional language came from the older interlocutors, suggesting that the language is severely endangered. Standard Australian English was used only minimally, although once they enter the formal school system, SAE will be the only language used for their education.