dialect-shifting – Educational Sociolinguistics

Fangzhe

The discussion of code-switching in class was quite interesting and it triggers some further thoughts.

An interesting fact is the mention that adding English words in conversations in China is regarded as a kind of showing off. This may sound very weird to people who have long been living in a neighborhood where shifting between different languages is a common practice. The perception is probably derived from the distorted imagery of some TV shows that depict a figure who likes to combine some English words into every sentence he or she speaks, mostly in a funny way, to demonstrate that he or she can speak the language. Criticism also comes from teachers and parents, saying that if the students mix two languages together, they are not learning either language well. Currently in China, although some people still hold this kind of stereotype, more people are accepting this phenomenon as a common scene in the workplace or even daily life.

John Narvaez

When I finished high school, I moved from my hometown Cartagena to nearby Barranquilla to start my B.Ed in modern languages. Even though these cities are just two hours away from each other, they have distinctive dialectal and sociocultural features that make the Spanish spoken in them very different and particular. Cartagena had a long history as a slave port in colonial times, so the influence of the African slaves’ languages created a variety of Spanish that is unique in the context of Colombia. Elements of African phonology and prosody are evident in the way we speak with consonant duplication being a major feature. In Cartagena, words like “puerta” /pwerta/ (door), or “carta” /karta/ (letter) are pronounced /pwet`ta/ and /cat`ta/ for example. Lexical variation also offers distinct ways of naming things and pragmatic elements of the dialect may give the impression that people from Cartagena are rustic and “more rural” than their counterparts from Barranquilla.

Cartagena, Colombia. The old city surrounded by the Caribbean sea and the modern Cartagena in the background.

The Barranquillero dialect, in contrast, tends to be a more standardized version of Spanish with a marked emphasis or the trilled /r/ and common features of Caribbean Spanish such as the aspiration of /s/ (/kosta/ = /kohta/). It also received influence from the waves of European and middle eastern immigrants who settled in the city and who have somehow shaped the city’s identity as a cultural and economic hub of Colombia’s Caribbean region.

Tag: dialect-shifting

Code-switching: showing off?

Dialect shifting: Surviving linguistic prestige and status in Barranquilla, Colombia, 25 years later…