Is Dutch Straattaal a mixed multiethnolect? A Moroccan perspective

Abstract

Dutch Straattaal is often described as a multiethnolect that is not only used among members of several different heritage groups, but also marks new identities. In this article, the focus is on the position of Straattaal among Moroccan youth, based on data from internet exchanges. The general observation is confirmed that Surinamese elements in Straattaal are used by Moroccan youth, and mixed with etymologically Moroccan elements. However, a different picture arises when studying meta-commentary by Moroccans about Straattaal. It appears that young Moroccans construct the use of lexical items from Srananthe most salient feature of Straattaalas something belonging to the Black community, and not as something they identify with. Thus, while Straattaal could be considered a multiethnolect on the level of actual speech, it is ideologically kept apart, and at that level much less multiethnic than is sometimes suggested.

Negotiating local in-group norms in times of globalization. Adnominal gender variation in two urban youth varieties in the Netherlands

“…However, speakers may sometimes (deliberately) deviate from it. For example, in Dutch youth varieties such as Straattaal 'street language', a (mixed) multiethnolect (Schoonen & Appel 2005;Kossmann 2017a;Nortier & Dorleijn 2013), and Moroccan Flavored Dutch/MFD (Nortier & Dorleijn 2008), speakers are developing their own linguistic and stylistic norms. In these varieties, the overgeneralization of common gender, i.e., the use of de, deze and die, where het, dit and dat are required (e.g., de/deze/die boek), is one of the main characteristics of their speech styles (see Cornips 2008 for a detailed discussion).…”

Using social media to infer the diffusion of an urban contact dialect: A case study of Multicultural London English

“…The emergence of MLE and ME/MBE can be seen as an example of a more general phenomenon: the appearance of new 'urban contact dialects' (Kerswill & Wiese, 2022). There is now a wealth of research which describes the development of these varieties in countries such as Sweden (Gross & Boyd, 2022;Kotsinas, 1988), Denmark (Aasheim, 1997;Quist, 2008Quist, , 2022, Norway (Svendsen, 2022;Svendsen & Røyneland, 2008), the Netherlands (Nortier, 2008;Kossmann, 2017), Germany (Şimşek & Wiese, 2022;Wiese, 2009), and France (Cheshire & Gardner-Chloros, 2018;Gadet, 2022). Some of this work has also described the tendency for urban contact dialects to spread (or diffuse) beyond the speech communities in which they first emerge (e.g.…”