Published by De Gruyter Mouton

Volume 6 Issue s4 - Special Issue: Youth language in Africa / Issue Editor: Ellen Hurst-Harosh

December 2020

Issue of Linguistics Vanguard

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Contents
Journal Overview

Research Articles

Publicly Available December 8, 2020

Youth language in Africa: Introduction to the special issue

Ellen Hurst-Harosh

Article number: 20200069

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Abstract

This article introduces this special issue of Linguistics Vanguard which focuses on youth language practices in Africa. The study of youth language and the linguistic practices of youth in the African continent is a rich field that has been expanding and deepening in recent years. This special issue emerged from a collection of papers presented at a workshop during the International Congress of Linguists (ICL20) in Cape Town, July 2018. The articles that come together in this special collection showcase some of the most productive and fascinating aspects of youth language in Africa and demonstrate why this field is particularly relevant for sociolinguistics today. This introduction describes some of the key subfields in African Youth Language research. It also introduces the articles in the special issue, in relation to three main themes: the linguistic analysis of youth language; the relationship between youth language and identity; and individual creativity and stylistic choice.

December 8, 2020

Transatlantic linguistic ties: The impact of Jamaican on African youth language practices

Renato Tomei, Andrea Hollington

Article number: 20190048

Abstract

This contribution seeks to shed light on global dimensions of language contact and language change with regard to African youth languages. Looking at the influences of Jamaican speech forms on youth language practices in Africa, the focus will be on transatlantic linguistic ties that link Africa and its Diaspora. As the case studies will illustrate, Jamaican has a huge impact on youths in Africa and is used extensively in their communicative practices. Music, in this regard, plays an important role: Reggae and Dancehall music are highly popular in many (especially Anglophone) African countries, and these Jamaican music genres are quite influential with regard to language practices among African youth and beyond. Music thus represents an important site of language contact, and also serves as a means to learn the Jamaican language. In our paper we will draw on examples from different African countries to illustrate the wide spread of Jamaican influences. Our focus will be on case studies in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Ethiopia, South Africa and the Gambia. We will discuss selected song examples from a sociolinguistic perspective that takes these various language practices as a base and then looks at the contexts and motivations for the use of Jamaican speech forms.

December 5, 2020

Morphological features of Kiswahili youth language(s): Evidence from Dar es Salaam, Goma, Lubumbashi and Nairobi

Nico Nassenstein, Paulin Baraka Bose

Article number: 20190034

Abstract

Since the late 1980s, linguists’ analyses of Sheng, the urban youth language from Nairobi, have led to the growth of a considerable body of literature. In contrast, only a few studies are available that cover other youth registers from the Kiswahili-speaking parts of Africa. While most of the available studies either deal with techniques of manipulation or with adolescents’ identity constructions, our paper intends to give a comparative overview of specific morphological features of Kiswahili-based youth languages. While certain characteristics of Sheng (Nairobi/Kenya), Lugha ya Mitaani (Dar es Salaam/Tanzania), Kindubile (Lubumbashi/DR Congo) and Yabacrâne (Goma/DR Congo) largely diverge from East Coast Swahili (hereafter ECS) in regard to their nominal and verbal morphology, they all share specific features. Focusing on (apparent) supra-regional developments and changes in Kiswahili, this preliminary description of some structural features that transcend all four youth language practices aims to provide comparative insights into urban register variation, approaching East African youth languages from a micro-typological perspective.

December 5, 2020

Represent 255: language, style and the construction of identity in Tanzanian English hip-hop

Nikitta Dede Adjirakor

Article number: 20190042

Abstract

From its encouraged and sustained use during colonial times, through to the creation of the Tanzanian state, the Swahili language has been consistently constructed as one of the key facets of Tanzanian identity. After the emergence of hip-hop in Tanzania, the shift from English to Swahili was instrumental to its widespread adoption, with English gaining a symbolic meaning as a status marker as well as a language for international positioning. This article argues that recently, a rising number of hip-hop artists style themselves as purely English-speaking artists to construct a Tanzanian identity that challenges the dominant positioning of Swahili. To this end, I explore through selected texts how English is used to construct a cosmopolitan niche and urban identity that serves as a counternarrative to the dominance of Swahili in the popular imagination. Through hip-hop songs, groups and performance events, I show how English is used to evoke experiences of belonging that are positioned as authentic narratives that juxtapose rather than contradict a Tanzanian identity.

December 8, 2020

Youth language in virtual space in Nigeria: Multimodal affordance, indexicality and youth identities

Taiwo Oloruntoba-Oju

Article number: 20190082

Abstract

Virtual space expressions contribute to the proliferation of African youth lingo within the Nigerian environment. However, beyond the sheer accumulation of lingual features, virtual space in Nigeria is also a site for the projection of both modern and indigenous youth identities, and for the deployment of sundry communication codes and multimodal affordances. This article explores this twin deployment, first as a way of broadening the sociolinguistic profile of African urban and youth languages, and second as a platform for examining aspects of youth identity formations in the Nigerian setting and how these intersect with the larger linguistic and sociolinguistic environment. Employing the methodology of content analysis, the article establishes youth language practice in virtual space in the Nigerian environment as not only multimodal, but also as indexical. Data samples are drawn from multiple discussion threads on Nairaland , a Nigerian youth news and entertainment blog that is hugely representative of the virtual space youth speech community in the country. The article concludes that virtual space and multimodal affordances enable the projection of hybridized and sometimes nondescript youth identities and alter-egos, as well as a display of communicative usages that appear distinctively African.

Open Access September 1, 2020

Attributional and relational influence of numerals in S’ncamtho metaphors

Sambulo Ndlovu

Article number: 20190067

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Abstract

Youth varieties in Africa such as S’ncamtho, the Ndebele-based youth variety in Zimbabwe, and urban vernaculars interact with urban and modern experiences which offer them new materials and experiences to base their metaphors on compared to older metaphors in the base languages. This paper explores the use of numeral qualities and associations in the conceptualisation and orthographic representation of S’ncamtho metaphors. S’ncamtho is popular with urban youth and this makes social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, SMS and Instagram key in the performance of the youth variety, a performance that includes the creation, use and contraction of metaphors. Numerals offer phonetic attributes which are exploited in S’ncamtho as metaphors for contracting longer words into shorter ones for fast and economic writing on social media. Numerals are also used as frames to create analogies which elicit euphemistic and general S’ncamtho metaphors. Qualities of numerals such as sound, form and association are used to derive S’ncamtho metaphors and a unique numeral aided orthography to represent some of these metaphors in writing. The research deploys relational and attributional tenets of metaphor theory to analyse the numerical mappings in S’ncamtho metaphors.

December 8, 2020

Metaphors and their link to generational peer groups and popular culture in African youth languages

Ellen Hurst-Harosh, Fridah Erastus Kanana

Article number: 20190053

Abstract

This article focuses on Sheng and Tsotsitaal metaphors in order to highlight the centrality of generational peer groups and popular culture in the formation of linguistic and social meaning within these language practices. Drawing on data from a comparative database, the analysis considers aspects such as generational narratives, the transition of a metaphor from a generational peer group context into a conventionalised metaphor, as well as multiple salience and ambiguity. We illustrate the use of metaphor in youth language and its relationship to popular culture, to make the case that youth language involves the innovation of new terms from popular culture. Metaphors are mini-narratives that index the particular culturally- and contextually-shared experiences of a generation of young people, and for this reason tend to be specific to a peer group. We therefore maintain that the term ‘youth language’ is useful because youth continue to drive the relexicalization process, which is the core of phenomena such as Sheng and Tsotsitaal.

December 5, 2020

He has committed a drinkable offence: the discourse of alcohol consumption among rural youth in Nigeria

Eyo O. Mensah

Article number: 20190036

Abstract

This article explores how identity and masculinity are framed and negotiated through interactional discourses which are related to alcohol consumption and drinking culture by rural youth in Southern Cross River State, South-Eastern Nigeria. In this culture, young men employ enregisterment of slang, metaphors and subjective narratives to symbolically construct their ideologies of alcohol. The study adopts the community of practice conceptual framework which sets the parameters for social and linguistic practices where language is (re)produced and (re)conceptualised through different forms of participation and engagement. With ethnographic observations, interviews, focus groups and qualitative analysis, I aim to reveal some of the dimensions of identity and masculinity that are enacted in the discourse of alcohol consumption. These include: knowledge of slang and metaphors associated with alcohol and its consumption, projecting an image of a light or heavy alcohol consumer, utilising alcohol as a necessity in resolving conflicts and relating alcohol consumption as a source of strength, toughness and other masculine attributes. I conclude that alcohol drinking culture forms part of the creative agency and social imaginaries of rural youth in defining their authentic social selves and local lifestyles.

December 5, 2020

Tokooos! as a linguistic fashion: The recontextualization and appropriation of Lingala youth language

Nico Nassenstein

Article number: 20190035

Abstract

This paper focuses on Lingala youth language (Bantu; DR Congo) and its recontextualization and use in the media and advertising industry, promoting music(ians), lifestyle products and telecommunication companies. Adolescents’ linguistic practices are often picked up and diffused by musicians and other public individuals, or at times even appropriated by them. This is exemplified by the innovative expression tokooos , which was used and diffused by the Congolese musician Fally Ipupa. The paper discusses the changing youth language practice Lingala ya Bayankee/Yanké from in-group language (of Congolese street-based adolescents) to a recontextualized commodified register, diffused beyond its community of practice and perceived as a “linguistic fashion”.

About this journal

Objective
Linguistics Vanguard is a new channel for high quality articles and innovative approaches in all major fields of linguistics. This multimodal journal is published solely online and provides an accessible platform supporting both traditional and new kinds of publications. Linguistics Vanguard seeks to publish concise and up-to-date reports on the state of the art in linguistics as well as cutting-edge research papers. With its topical breadth of coverage and anticipated quick rate of production, it is one of the leading platforms for scientific exchange in linguistics. Its broad theoretical range, international scope, and diversity of article formats engage students and scholars alike.

Topics
All topics within linguistics are welcome. The journal especially encourages submissions taking advantage of its new multimodal platform designed to integrate interactive content, including audio and video, images, maps, software code, raw data, and any other media that enhances the traditional written word. The novel platform and concise article format allows for rapid turnaround of submissions. Full peer review assures quality and enables authors to receive appropriate credit for their work. The journal publishes general submissions as well as special collections. Ideas for special collections may be submitted to the editors for consideration (linguistics.vanguard@degruyter.com)