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Sociolinguistics --- Dialectology --- Europe

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The Structure of Lexical Variation : Meaning, Naming, and Context

Lexicology. --- Language and languages --- Characterology of speech --- Language diversity --- Language subsystems --- Language variation --- Linguistic diversity --- Variation in language --- English language --- Variation. --- Lexicology --- Academic collection --- #KVHA:Lexicologie --- #KVHA:Taalkunde --- 801.3 --- Variation --- Lexicografie. Woordenboeken --- 801.3 Lexicografie. Woordenboeken --- Lexicology. Semantics --- Dutch language --- Lexicologie --- Variation (Linguistique) --- Language and languages - Variation

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In this study, we observe adolescents’ attitudes towards “ethnic” varieties of Dutch in Belgium by means of a Speaker Evaluation Experiment. In the second half of the previous century, new language forms started to emerge in Flanders (and other parts of Europe) as a consequence of immigration. These new language forms are sometimes labelled “ethnolects” for their non-native origin, but that term has been known to be considered inappropriate. Other new players include so-called Contemporary Urban Vernaculars (CUV’s), one of which has been known to emerge in the former mining neighbourhoods of Belgian Limburg. Citétaal (‘Citélanguage’) has recently been gaining popularity and has been reported to be used by native and non-native Flemish youth. We thus conclude that ethnically coloured speech, or at least Citétaal, has acquired some sort of prestige that fuels its spread among native inhabitants and explains its increasing popularity in national media. In this study, we seek to find perceptual evidence to substantiate this claim. By way of theoretical background, we first introduce the Flemish language space and its complicated standardisation history compared to Netherlandic Dutch. As a result of what is considered a case of so-called “hyperstandardisation”, Flanders has been engrained with a strong and conservative standard language ideology. We then turn to the emerging ethnically coloured language varieties that have popped up in several areas of Europe. After a brief overview of CUV’s throughout Europe, we sketch the emergence and characteristics of Citétaal. Subsequently, we survey methodological aspects of language attitude research, particularly research into attitudes towards ethnically coloured speech. We then outline the present experimental design. A Speaker Evaluation Experiment (of the Verbal Guise variety) was conducted with 161 respondents throughout the Flemish region. In the experiment, attitudes towards a continuum of ethnically coloured Limburg Dutch were measured on the evaluative dimensions ‘superiority’, ‘integrity’ and ‘dynamism’. Our results show that the degree of ethnic colouring of spoken Limburg correlates with both traditional prestige (superiority) and alternative prestige (dynamism), be it in opposite directions. A higher degree of colouring results in downgrading on traditional values, but noticeable upgrading on dynamism. This effect can be observed throughout Flanders. Limburg respondents are, however, more severe in their downgrading of both Italian and Turkish Limburg on superiority. We also show that Turkish speakers are rated more negatively than Italian ones, which might be related to the former’s association with the faith of Islam. Our most surprising observation is by far a link between aesthetic evaluation and the attribution of alternative prestige. Respondents deeming Citétaal ‘beautiful’, return a higher score on dynamism for the Turkish Citélanguage guise which provides evidence for an alternative language ideology that attributes dynamic prestige to non-standard varieties.