Urban Youth Languages in Africa  

Oleh:

Kiessling, Roland ; Mous, Maarten

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Anthropological Linguistics (ada di JSTOR) vol. 46 no. 3 (Feb. 2004), page 303-341.
Fulltext: Vol. 46, No. 3, pp. 303-341.pdf (4.63MB)

Isi artikel

Youths in several urban centers on the African continent are continuously creating their own languages in order to set themselves apart from the older generation. These languages also serve to bridge ethnic differences. Cases have been reported for Abidjan, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Kinshasa- Brazzaville, and Yaounde. We show that these urban youth languages have much in common, both in function and in the linguistic strategies that their speakers use. The strategies found are typical for conscious language manipu- lation in general. Languages that arise through lexical manipulation can be divided into four types according to their function and use. Urban youth lan- guages fall into the category of what Halliday terms antilanguages, but differ from other instances of language manipulation such as argot, taboo, jargon, slang, secret languages, and in-law respect languages. The difference lies not only in their different functions, but also, and related to these, in a preference for the use of certain types of conscious manipulation above others. The primary function of these urban youth languages is to create a powerful icon of identity. The identity in question is established through the reversal of norms, and develops from an underdog type of identity to one aimed at reforming society.

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