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“High” and “low” in urban Danish speech styles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2013

Lian Malai Madsen
Lian Malai Madsen*
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen, Department of Scandinavian Studies and Linguistics, Njalsgade 120, 2300 Kbh. S., [email protected]
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Abstract

This article approaches on-going sociolinguistic processes in Copenhagen by focusing on the overt metalinguistic activities of a group of adolescents. The article sheds light on how social power differences are refracted in the metalinsguistic activities of these adolescents in spite of the relatively homogenous (or hegemonic) sociolinguistic conditions of Danish society. In the article, I investigate how social status relations understood as cultural interpretations of societal “high” and “low” are relevant to on-going social value ascriptions to the contrasting ways of speaking labelled “integrated” and “street language.” The metalinguistic data I present points to a sociolinguistic transformation. Linguistic signs that used to be seen as related to migration, on an insider/outsider dimension of comparison, are now related to status on a high/low dimension as well. (Sociolinguistic transformation, ethnicity, social class, enregisterment, metalinguistic reflections)*

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , April 2013 , pp. 115 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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