Indexing the Local

Abstract

Handbook of Language and Globalization 9,593 words including references Globalization divides as much as it unites; it divides as it unites --the causes of division being identical with those which promote the uniformity of the globe.Alongside the emerging planetary dimensions of business, finance, trade and information flow, a 'localizing', space-fixing process is set in motion. (Bauman 1998, 2) Attention to linguistic variation worldwide is evidenced in efforts to document or revive dying languages; in political struggles over language and dialect rights, national languages, and language in education; and in the commodification of languages and varieties in film, on TV, radio and the internet, in folk dictionaries and on other tourist artifacts. New attention to regional variation has been part of this trend. As Newcastle (England) speech levels to a regional standard in the wake of outmigration (Watt 2002), people start to refer to the Newcastle football club as The Toon, spelling the local pronunciation of town (Beal 1999). As island-dwellers in the eastern U.S. encounter more and more outsiders and their dialects die, they cling to one or two local forms (Schilling-Estes 1998. This is not the first time regional linguistic variation has become salient in political and popular culture. But it seems paradoxical that regional variation should be so noticeable in the early 21 st century, in the context of the and language awareness. To illustrate this, I draw on work I and my colleagues have done in Pittsburgh, PA, a de-industrializing city in the northeaster U.S. (Johnstone, Bhasin and Wittkofski 2002, Johnstone and Baumgardt 2004, Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson 2006). I use the concept of indexical order (Silverstein 2003) to model how social and economic change over the course of the latter half of the 20 th century has made local speech forms hearable, first as "markers" (Labov 1972, 178-80) of correctness, care, and the like, and later as examples of "Pittsburghese," an (imagined) dialect associated with local identity. Regional dialects in contactPeter Trudgill's (1986) Dialects in Contact set off a wave of work leading to a more and more nuanced understanding of "dialect leveling," or the ways in which dialects can lose aspects of their distinctiveness when their speakers come into contact with speakers of other dialects. According to Trudgill's influential model, contact among speakers who use different linguistic forms might be expected to lead to linguistic accommodation (Giles, Taylor and Bourhis 1973) by speakers needing to express solidarity or avoid miscommunication with others. Over the long run, this process might be expected to lead to the "leveling" of varieties-the reduction, that is, in the number of differences between them. In the U.S. as in Europe, industrialization beginning in the 18 th century led people to move from the countryside to the cities. Subsequent developments included the

‘Nobody wants to sound like a provinciano’: The recession of unstressed vowel devoicing in the Spanish of Cusco, Perú1

“…Cusqueñans’ identification of devoicing with the speech of provincianos – migrants from rural areas who are often stereotyped as unsophisticated due to their association with supposedly unrefined indigenous culture – also has precedents in other cases of linguistic features that once indicated only geographic origin but later developed affiliations with specific social identities. Recent studies focusing on the linguistic repertoires labeled ‘Pittsburghese’ (Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson 2006; inter alia ) and ‘Yooperse’ in Michigan (Remlinger 2009) describe situations that are especially similar to the evolution of vowel devoicing's social significance in Cusco. Both illustrate how, as in Cusco, regional language features can become socially meaningful after contact with other dialects makes them ‘hearable’ (Johnstone 2010: 387).…”

“…Recent studies focusing on the linguistic repertoires labeled ‘Pittsburghese’ (Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson 2006; inter alia ) and ‘Yooperse’ in Michigan (Remlinger 2009) describe situations that are especially similar to the evolution of vowel devoicing's social significance in Cusco. Both illustrate how, as in Cusco, regional language features can become socially meaningful after contact with other dialects makes them ‘hearable’ (Johnstone 2010: 387). Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson (2006) trace the growth of connections between a set of phonetic characteristics, lexical items and authentic community membership in Pittsburgh following increased exposure to speakers of other varieties of American English.…”

“Because here we live in the Netherlands”: Languagecultural politics of belonging in a supermarket

“…Besides this, the province is known for the regional dialects and accents of Dutch used by its inhabitants. These dialects and accents are enregistered (Agha 2008) or indexed (Johnstone 2010) as markers of a regional identity. Because there is a strong sense of linguistic awareness amongst inhabitants of Limburg (Cornips 2013), the use of local dialects and accents in Dutch within, as well as outside the province, points to belonging.…”

The local, the global, and the authentic: Language change and the construction of authenticity in Bequia

“…However, another tendency has been observed, namely a return to the local in the face of the changes attendant on globalisation. Global processes often force individuals and communities to renegotiate their local identities, or "re-imagine themselves" (Feather-stone 1994, Johnstone 2010. Further, processes associated with globalisation, such as mobility and contact, may lead to variation becoming a meaningful marker of distinction between groups, which is often supported by ideological reasons for maintaining these boundaries.…”