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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 919

Part of Session 191: Language variation, identity and urban Space (Other abstracts in this session)

Negotiating Identities: Migrant Communities in an emerging Metropolis

Authors: Kulkarni-Joshi, Sonal Atul
Submitted by: Kulkarni-Joshi, Sonal Atul (Deccan College (Deemed University), India)

Indian studies of bilingualism have been influenced by two important hypotheses developed in the 1970s: while language shift seemed to be the norm among western second language speakers, language maintenance was the norm and shift the exception among Indian second language speaking communities (Pandit 1972). Further, the tendency to maintain the home language in the family domain was linked to the (migrant) community’s need for maintaining its distinct religious identity/ethnic separateness (Gumperz and Wilson 1971). The present paper revisits these hypotheses in the context of contemporary urban Indian settings where the peripheries of the cities grow as economic prospects draw other-language speakers from diverse parts of the country into their workforce. While the city periphery becomes increasingly multilingual and multi-cultural, the city core largely remains the preserve of the local language and the local culture. This paper reports findings from a study which combines variationist methods with ethnography to examine the indexical meanings of Hindi, English, standard Marathi, dialects of Marathi and mixed codes in the language practices of the local and migrant communities, in folk perceptions of ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’, and in negotiating layered identities among migrant communities in the city.

References

Gumperz, J.J. and R. Wilson. 1971. Convergence and Creolization: A Case from the Indo-Aryan/Dravidian Border in India. D. Hymes (ed.) Pidginization and Creolization of Languages, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gumperz, J.J. 1982. Language and Social Identity : studies in interactional sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kulkarni-Joshi, S. (To appear in 2012). ‘Methodological Challenges in Investigating Sociolinguistic Identity’ in Proceedings of International Seminar on Language, Culture and Identity: Issues and Challenges, Aligarh Muslim University, India. Cambridge Scholars Press.

Pandit, P.B. 1972. India as a Sociolinguistic Area. University of Poona: Pune.