Identity construction through phonetic crossing among young Capetonian gang members

Authors

  • Nadine Chariatte Universität Bern, Switzerland Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v10i1-2.27930

Keywords:

phonetic crossing, gangs, identity, Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

Uncountable gangs operate in post-Apartheid South Africa, particularly in greater Cape Town, competing over turf and controlling the drug trade. Consequently, gang violence is rife in Western Cape and especially widespread in urban areas. In this paper young Capetonians’ narratives of gang violence are analyzed. In the narratives of attacks on Black or White South Africans by Coloured gang members, the Coloured narrators make use of their victims’ varieties of English, more precisely, of phonetic features. Hence, the aggressors do language crossing towards their targets when narrating their feats. Rampton (1995a:485) considers language crossing a ‘code alternation by people who are not accepted members of the group associated with the second language that they are using (code switching into varieties that are not generally thought to belong to them)’. This switching involves a transgression of social or ethnic boundaries that allows the young gangsters to construct, negotiate, uphold and manage their social identities, as language still functions as an utterly important identity marker in post-Apartheid South Africa.

Author Biography

  • Nadine Chariatte, Universität Bern, Switzerland
    Nadine Chariatte is a Junior Lecturer at the Universität Bern, Switzerland. She holds a Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics. Her dissertation explores the Spanish spoken in Malaga, its perception and its use online. In addition, she also works on Coloured South African English. Her research interests include sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and computer-mediated communication.

Published

2016-06-04

How to Cite

Chariatte, N. (2016). Identity construction through phonetic crossing among young Capetonian gang members. Sociolinguistic Studies, 10(1-2), 45–66. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v10i1-2.27930