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- Convenors:
-
Gladys Nyarko Ansah
(University of Ghana)
George Frimpong (University of Ghana)
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- Discussant:
-
Paul Kerswill
(University of York)
- Stream:
- Language and Literature
- Location:
- David Hume, LG.10
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 12 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Migration does not only cause disruption (uprooting and relocating) but also connection (adapting to new surroundings and realities, including linguistic ones). This panel is interested in the linguistic heritages that evolve among Africans in migratory and transnational contexts.
Long Abstract:
Migration does not only cause disruption (uprooting and relocating) but also connection (adapting to new surroundings and realities, including linguistic ones). The movement of African migrants into new environments presents new challenges of identity struggle both in terms of retaining their African heritage and identities and assuming or adapting to new identities of their new environments. This panel is interested in the linguistic heritages that evolve among Africans in migratory and transnational contexts. What role does language play in the ways African immigrants and transnationals experience the processes of uprooting, relocation, as well as the negotiation and construction of identities in their new contexts? The constituent papers in this panel will investigate (1) linguistic repertoires that reflect individual/group trajectories in African migratory/transnational contexts; and (2) heterogenous worlds and discourses about language and language practices in African migratory /transnational contexts.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 12 June, 2019, -Paper short abstract:
This study employs mixed methods to investigate the language habits formed by 1-5 year old children born to young female migrants in urban markets in Accra in order to explore the role the migrants play in the production and reproduction of sociolinguistic structures in urban Ghana
Paper long abstract:
This study employs mixed methods to investigate the language habits that are formed by 1-5 years old children who are born to/are being raised by young female migrants from northern Ghana, Kayayei, in urban markets in Accra in order to explore the role these migrants play in the production and reproduction of sociolinguistic structures in urban Ghana. Ansah et al (2017) report that even though Akan is the dominant language of the major markets in Accra where the Kayayei work, many of them get by with minimal bilingualism in the markets mainly for economic reasons. However, Grim et al (2010) have suggested that Bordieu's (1982) argument that language is an instrument of power, 'used by social actors in the production and reproduction of social structures' is applicable to multilingual contexts where language use may become an index of social, political and economic inequality because languages do not enjoy the same degree of prestige or vitality at a given time and place. When the Kayayei send their 1-5 year old to pre-school facilities in and around the Agbogbloshoie market so that the parents can work, a) what languages are these children exposed to in these pre-school facilities? b) what new linguistic habits emerge among these children? c) how do the migrant parents react to the emergent linguistic habits their children acquire? and d) can these habits potentially lead to the development of multilingualism or language shift among second generation migrants from northern Ghana in Accra?
Paper short abstract:
One important consequence of coloniality is the radical alteration in the sociolinguistic profile of African societies. This paper examines the changing sociolinguistic profile Lagos in Nigeria. Of particular interest are: the colonial trajectory and the linguistic artifacts of this trajectory.
Paper long abstract:
One of the important consequences of coloniality is the radical alteration in the sociolinguistic profile of African societies. Not just that individuals confront new words and new significances, but that the lexicon of entire societies, and the associated patterns of knowing that go with these lexicons, change; sometimes for the better, and sometimes for worse. Contact phenomena such as Pidginisation and Creolisation, diglossia, borrowing, code-mixing, code-switching, bilingualism and others have profound effect on the linguistic life of African communities. At the negative extreme is language loss or language death (which may be virtual or real), while at the positive end is multilingualism and multiculturalism and their possible national and international socio-economic appurtenances. This paper examines the changing sociolinguistic profile of one of the most populous cities in Africa - Lagos in Nigeria. Of particular interest are: the colonial trajectory and the linguistic artifacts of this trajectory, the effect of this trajectory on the characterization the urban language of Lagos in terms of connections and disruptions, and the sociolinguistic principles to be derived from the trajectory.