Online Multilingualism in African Written Conversations

The objective of this research is to analyse current written practices within the global South. Specifically, we examine language mixing phenomena in written online texts publicly displayed on the official Facebook page of one of the two most important football players in the history of Cameroon, Sa...

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Main Authors: Carmen Pérez-Sabater, Ginette Maguelouk-Moffo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: LibraryPress@UF 2020-05-01
Series:Studies in African Linguistics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ojs.test.flvc.org/sal/article/view/122272
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author Carmen Pérez-Sabater
Ginette Maguelouk-Moffo
author_facet Carmen Pérez-Sabater
Ginette Maguelouk-Moffo
author_sort Carmen Pérez-Sabater
collection DOAJ
description The objective of this research is to analyse current written practices within the global South. Specifically, we examine language mixing phenomena in written online texts publicly displayed on the official Facebook page of one of the two most important football players in the history of Cameroon, Samuel Eto’o. By means of a quantitative and languaging analysis proposed by Androutsopoulos (2014), we see that indigenous Cameroonian languages are now being written in public spaces. Instances of lexical items in these languages are sometimes inserted in Facebook comments to establish local/national identity, to emphasise the fact that the player is a Cameroonian. However, Cameroonian national identity still is usually constructed through the exclusive use of English and French. Interestingly, the study shows that code-switching (CS) to a particular language may function as a distancing technique, an impoliteness strategy towards the player.
format Article
id doaj-art-c538b8a73a2b4109a3243dac355e0216
institution OA Journals
issn 0039-3533
2154-428X
language English
publishDate 2020-05-01
publisher LibraryPress@UF
record_format Article
series Studies in African Linguistics
spelling doaj-art-c538b8a73a2b4109a3243dac355e02162025-08-20T01:53:30ZengLibraryPress@UFStudies in African Linguistics0039-35332154-428X2020-05-01491Online Multilingualism in African Written ConversationsCarmen Pérez-Sabater0Ginette Maguelouk-Moffo1Universitat Politècnica de ValènciaUniversitat Politècnica de ValènciaThe objective of this research is to analyse current written practices within the global South. Specifically, we examine language mixing phenomena in written online texts publicly displayed on the official Facebook page of one of the two most important football players in the history of Cameroon, Samuel Eto’o. By means of a quantitative and languaging analysis proposed by Androutsopoulos (2014), we see that indigenous Cameroonian languages are now being written in public spaces. Instances of lexical items in these languages are sometimes inserted in Facebook comments to establish local/national identity, to emphasise the fact that the player is a Cameroonian. However, Cameroonian national identity still is usually constructed through the exclusive use of English and French. Interestingly, the study shows that code-switching (CS) to a particular language may function as a distancing technique, an impoliteness strategy towards the player. https://ojs.test.flvc.org/sal/article/view/122272identity;language mixing;code-switching;social media;multilingual texts;football;
spellingShingle Carmen Pérez-Sabater
Ginette Maguelouk-Moffo
Online Multilingualism in African Written Conversations
Studies in African Linguistics
identity;
language mixing;
code-switching;
social media;
multilingual texts;
football;
title Online Multilingualism in African Written Conversations
title_full Online Multilingualism in African Written Conversations
title_fullStr Online Multilingualism in African Written Conversations
title_full_unstemmed Online Multilingualism in African Written Conversations
title_short Online Multilingualism in African Written Conversations
title_sort online multilingualism in african written conversations
topic identity;
language mixing;
code-switching;
social media;
multilingual texts;
football;
url https://ojs.test.flvc.org/sal/article/view/122272
work_keys_str_mv AT carmenperezsabater onlinemultilingualisminafricanwrittenconversations
AT ginettemagueloukmoffo onlinemultilingualisminafricanwrittenconversations