Youth multilingualism in South Africa’s hip-hop culture: A metapragmatic analysis

Authors

  • Quentin E. Williams University of the Western Cape Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v10i1-2.27797

Keywords:

youth, multilingualism, metapragmatics, hip-hop, South Africa

Abstract

This paper describes the practice of youth multilingualism in South Africa’s hip-hop culture, in an online social media space and an advertising space. Based on a multi-sited ethnographic ?eldwork study of youth multilingual practices, comprising of the following data sets – multilingual interviews, observations, multilingual interactions and performances, documents and online social networking interactions – the paper reports on how young multilingual speakers active in the hip-hop culture of the country talk and write about the intermixing of racial and ethnic speech forms, as well as use registers in the practice of gendered identities. The argument I put forth in the paper is that the examples of youth multilingualism suggest a complex picture of youth multilingual contact in postcolonial South Africa, and one that require a sociocultural linguistic response that accounts for the cultural in?uence of youth multilingualisms in local hip-hop culture. To such an end, I suggest that multilingual policy planning in the country should be readjusted to the complex sociocultural changes we see emerge with youth multilingual practices.

Author Biography

  • Quentin E. Williams, University of the Western Cape
    Quentin E. Williams is a Lecturer in the Linguistics Department at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. He has published papers on hip-hop, marginality, linguistic citizenship and performance in the journals Language Policy, English Today, and Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. He is co-Editor of the journal Multilingual Margins: A Journal of Multilingualism from the Periphery. He is currently completing a book entitled Remix Multilingualism, under contract with Bloomsbury Press.

Published

2016-06-04

How to Cite

Williams, Q. E. (2016). Youth multilingualism in South Africa’s hip-hop culture: A metapragmatic analysis. Sociolinguistic Studies, 10(1-2), 109–133. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v10i1-2.27797