Senegalese digital repertoires in superdiversity: A case study from Seneweb

Laughlin, Fiona Mc

doi:10.1016/j.dcm.2014.03.004

Cited by 30 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…A more limited body of work has explored the role of multilingual and multimodal resources in diasporic practices online (cf. Androutsopoulos, 2006;Jacquemet, 2005;McLaughlin, 2014). This research illustrates how multilingual practices in transnational and diasporic settings are intertwined with the multimodal repertoires and semiotic resources afforded by digital media, and how language choices in, for example, chat messages or forum discussions index locally produced identities, thereby contesting essentialist language and ethnicity linkages.…”

Section: Introduction and Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 81%

Digital polycentricity and diasporic connectivity: A Norwegian‐Senegalese case study

Androutsopoulos

Lexander

2021

Journal of Sociolinguistics

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Digital communication remains largely unexplored in sociolinguistic research on diaspora and language. In this paper, ethnographically collected data from Norway-based families of Senegalese heritage are explored to identify how family members use digital media to engage with diaspora concerns and projects, and how this engagement shapes their multilingual practices online. We re-contextualize the concept of polycentricity (Blommaert et al.) from the physical setting of a neighbourhood or region to complex ecologies of digital media, and identify four 'centres', that is, distinct orientations for participants' digital language and literacy practices, in which linguistic choices are associated with diaspora discourses, genres, and imagery. Each centre constrains the deployment of linguistic and semiotic resources in ways that are related both to historically rooted sociolinguistic hierarchies and affordances of digital media. The findings support a key claim in language and diaspora research, that is, the fine-grained patterning of linguistic resources in diaspora communities. They also underscore the need to extend the empirical scope of a sociolinguistics of diaspora from co-present to mediated interaction, and to explore the interplay between the two.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

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Section: Introduction and Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 81%

Digital polycentricity and diasporic connectivity: A Norwegian‐Senegalese case study

Androutsopoulos

Lexander

2021

Journal of Sociolinguistics

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“…We find them in personal notebooks and other personal writing (Mbodj-Pouye 2013, Juffermans 2015, in the linguistic landscape (e.g. Mc Laughlin 2014), and in digital writing (e.g. Lexander 2011, Mc Laughlin 2014).…”

Section: Language and Literacy In Senegalmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Mc Laughlin 2014), and in digital writing (e.g. Lexander 2011, Mc Laughlin 2014). Irvine's statement about literacy in colonial times is still valid today: "What many African pupils ended up acquiring was not just literacy itself, but a repertoire of literacy practices involving two or more quite different systems" (Irvine 2019: 44).…”

Section: Language and Literacy In Senegalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Literacies in contact when writing Wolof – orthographic repertoires in digital communication

Lexander

2020

WL&L

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This paper investigates the resources writers activate when they spell Wolof, a West African language they usually use more in spoken than in written communication. I apply the notion of orthographic repertoire to examine three young women’s spelling of Wolof as socially embedded practices. The analysis covers three different sets of interactional data: (1) texting by Senegalese university students, (2) discussion forum posts, and (3) transnational digital family interaction. The spelling practices are examined with reference to the colonial history of spelling in Senegal, other contemporary informal literacies in West Africa, and the sociolinguistic context of the writers. The paper shows that the different spelling resources related to the multilingual and mediated nature of their writing are drawn upon as the three young women engage in digital literacy practices including Wolof.

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“…The era of partial, parallel multilingualism had mixed results for minoritized languages. On the one hand, English had a “head start” (Block, 2004, p. 23), as we have seen above; on the other hand, the new technology allowed for linguistic communities dispersed over time and space to come together in new ways (Cunliffe & Herring, 2005; McLaughlin, 2014; Sheyholislami, 2010; Wright, 2006). A good example is the development of top-level domains such as .cat, which allowed for a pan-national online community of Catalan speakers to “come together” (Atkinson, 2006).…”

Section: Multilingualismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multilingualism and Technology: A Review of Developments in Digital Communication from Monolingualism to Idiolingualism

Kelly‐Holmes

2019

Ann Rev Appl Linguist

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The focus in this article is on the evolution of language and technology in relation to multilingualism, in particular on how multilingual provision has developed in tandem with the development of the internet and the World Wide Web (WWW). In trying to understand how multilingualism has evolved, it is also necessary to understand how the technical aspects of digital technology as well as the politico-economic dimensions to that technology have changed. Four distinct periods emerge in the development: monolingualism, multilingualism, hyperlingualism, and idiolingualism. Monolingualism covers the origins of the internet and later the WWW as monolingual spaces. This was followed by a long period that charts the slow but gradual development of increased language provision and what I am terming “partial multilingualism.” Multilingualism expanded substantially, potentially limitlessly, with the development of Web 2.0. This has involved the diversification of online spaces to the point of “hyperlingualism.” I argue that we are still in this hyperlingual phase, but alongside it, a new phase is developing, that of “idiolingualism” as a result of mass linguistic customization. In this article, I discuss these phases, paying attention to both their technical and economic contexts, as well as their implications for linguistic diversity online and in wider society.

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Senegalese digital repertoires in superdiversity: A case study from Seneweb

Cited by 30 publications

References 9 publications

Digital polycentricity and diasporic connectivity: A Norwegian‐Senegalese case study

Digital polycentricity and diasporic connectivity: A Norwegian‐Senegalese case study

Literacies in contact when writing Wolof – orthographic repertoires in digital communication

Multilingualism and Technology: A Review of Developments in Digital Communication from Monolingualism to Idiolingualism

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