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The relation between social and digital behaviour of Dutch

Turks and MoroccansMargreet Dorleijn

Universiteit van Amsterdam

Jacomine NortierUtrecht University

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This presentation:

• Turkish and Moroccan communities• Comparison of language choice, stylistic

means and cs in spoken and digital language use by Turks and Moroccans, respectively .

• Examples throughout the presentation• Conclusions

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Turkish and Moroccan migrants in the Netherlands

Real-life sociolinguistic situation

↑↓Digital behavior

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Are linguistic practices the same in real-life and digital communities?

The question about usefulness of digital data will be addressed tomorrow in colloquium 378: Critical views on Methods and Practices in Research on Multilingalism

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Why compare Turks and Moroccans?

Because they are comparable in terms of

• Migration history• Size• Cultural background• Socio-economic status

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Migration history:

• Guest workers in sixties and seventies• Family members joined husbands and

fathers• Chain migration: wedding partners from

countries of origin

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Size:

Total Dutch population

16.334.210 100%

Turkish 364.333 2.23% Moroccan 323.239 1.98%

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Cultural background: Religion: islam

Socio-economic status:• Low educational level• Low income• Poor housing• Younger generations: strong upward

mobility

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Not comparable in terms of sociolinguistic situation:

• Moroccans: bilingual community• Turks: monolingual community

• Moroccans: L1s have low prestige• Turks: L1 has high prestige

• Moroccans: language is not an ethnic core value• Turks: language is core value

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(continued)

• Moroccans: loosely knit community• Turks: closely knit community

• Moroccans: rapidly shifting to Dutch• Turks: not (or slowly) shifting to Dutch

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Linguistic behaviour in real life (as opposed to virtual behaviour)

• Language choice• Stylistic means• Functions of Code Switching

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Language choice in daily life: Turks: Turkish – Moroccans: Dutch

M:(…) I wouldn’t be able to talk with a Turkish group (..) they speak only Turkish, I wouldn’t want to sit with them

I: Since they talk Turkish so that is a real hindrance for you

T:Yes that’s not the case with Moroccan-, they really speak Dutch, you can easily sit or stand with them or whatever (…) I’ve never seen Moroccan girls who speak Moroccan, they go round speaking only Dutch.)

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Moroccan flavoured Dutch as a style

Moroccan (Turkish, etc) teenagers:

Moroccan accent and occasional insertion ofMoroccan functional elements:

Stylistic means to express group membership,solidarity, ‘toughness’, ‘urban’etc.

(Dorleijn & Nortier, 2005; Nortier & Dorleijn, forthc.)

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CS in spoken language

2nd and 3rd generations:• Turks: CS is often default mode of

communication• Moroccans: CS often marked choice with

specific communicative intention; more use of monolingual Dutch

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Digital Behaviour: choice

• Moroccans (either Berber or Arabic): Mainly Dutch, with Arabic/Berber insertions.

• Turks: Depending on topic.

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Choice (continued)Depending on Topic:

• Conveying information about Dutch items: Dutch (with occasional Turkish insertions or alternations)

• Conveying information about Turkish items: Turkish (with occasional Dutch insertions or alternations).

• Informal chatter: continuous CS.

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Style: Moroccan flavoured Dutch

• Basically phonological characteristics, but also the insertion of Moroccan Arabic functional elements.

• Traces of it (MfD) on Turkish site.

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Example:

(…)lekker bankje verwarming  wa posters, bide laptoplar gelince tamam artik bizim mekan orasidir

(…) a nice seat and posters, and when the laptops arrive, that will be our place to be

(TurkishTexas.nl, september 2006)

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A lot of examples on Moroccan sites, e.g.:

Wa7ed goede morgen allemaal!One good morning everybody

3la zwakzinnig gevoel voor humor heb ik.What (a) retarded sense of humor I have

www.maroc.nl

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Code Switching on Moroccan sites:

remarkably often CS for poetic language use (including puns, fun and wit):(and otherwise CS that can be interpreted in terms of ‘Markedness’ (Myers-Scotton) or ‘Contextualization Cues’ (Gumperz; Auer)

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Example of poetic language useJe bent nog mooier dan mijn remra7 , gezien vanaf de sta7,bij het krieken van de sba7.

‘You are even prettier than my court yard, seen from the roof, at dawn in the morning’

gataarlijk spuldangerous stuff (gataar – dangerous MA

gevaarlijk – dangerous D)

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Code Switching on Turkish sites

1. Occasional alternational CS, mostly in texts that convey information – mostly to be interpreted in terms of ‘contextualization cues’, ‘markedness’ (e.g. explorative use).

2. CS as the default mode in chat.

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Example:1. Contextualization cue (side comment):

Maar wat wil het lot… (büyük konusmusuz) ik ben verliefd en zwaar ook.

 ‘But fate strikes… (that was easy to say at the time) I am in love and heavily as it is.

 (www.lokum.nl, September, 2006)

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Example2. Default mode:

Is er geen moppen topic of zo, fikralar topigi falan var, mop guzel ama, her mopa bir topic acilirsa, is een beetje onnodig.

‘Is there no jokes topic or so, joke-PL topic-POSS or-so there-is, joke nice-is,

but each joke-DAT one topic open-PASS-COND-3sg, is a little unnecessary.’

 

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To wrap it up:1. Digital linguistic behaviour is similar to real-life

linguistic behaviour for both Moroccans and Turks.2. Users of Moroccan descent consider their L1 as

something extra, a source of fun and wit. In contrast to the Moroccan/Dutch forums, in Turkish/Dutch forums, we have not found that bilingualism in itself is employed as a source for wit or wordplay.

3. Are digital data useful???

(To be continued tomorrow….)

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ReferencesAissati, A. El (1996): Language Loss among Native Speakers of Moroccan

Arabic in the Netherlands. Nijmegen: doctoral dissertation.

Auer, Peter (1998) ‘Introduction to chapter 12’ . Code-Switching in conversation. Language, Interaction and Identity. P. Auer (ed.). London/New York: Routledge. 287-289.

Myers-Scotton, Carol (1993), Social Motivations for Codeswitching: Evidence from Africa. Oxford Studies in Language Contact; Clarendon Press.

Dorleijn, M & J. Nortier (2006): Het Marokkaanse accent in het Nederlands: Marker of indicator? In: Artikelen van de vijfde sociolinguistische conferentie, eds. Tom Koole, Jacomine Nortier en Bert Tahitu, Delft, 138-147

Nortier, J & M. Dorleijn (forthc.): A Moroccan accent in Dutch: restricted to the Moroccan community? IJB