Styling the periphery: Linguistic and cultural takeup in Bangladesh and Mongolia

Abstract

Focusing on online interactions among young adults in Bangladesh and Mongoliatwo countries located politically, culturally and economically on the Asian peripherythis paper looks at how young adults use linguistic and cultural resources in their online interactions as part of a complex and emergent stylization of place. On the one hand, they appropriate the cultural and linguistic flows according to their locations and engage in a playful stylization and reconfiguration of what the local means. On the other hand, they engage in stylization and reflexive language use, often involving exaggerated linguistic variation, mixing, and other semiotic resources in order to produce and perform a range of social and cultural identities. The paper hence shows how the circulation and takeup of popular cultural flows around Asia can involve diverse processes of linguistic and cultural stylization.

Insults or Acts of Identity? The Role of Stylization in Multilingual Discourse

“…Bamberg & Georgakopoulou (2008) show, for example, how a young adolescent boy participating in a focus group interview with his peers double-voices pop artist Shaggy's title and lyrics of the song "It wasn't me" to downplay the idea that he might have romantic interests in girlssomething that would clearly lead his peers to mercilessly tease him. Similarly, Sultana et al (2013) document how lines from Hindi movies have become part of university students' everyday conversations in Bangladesh, and how fans of Mongolian pop star Amarkhuu compare him to well-known actors from Korean drama in online comments on YouTube to show their admiration and support.…”

Uneven distribution of resources in the youth linguascapes of Mongolia

“…Temir went to one of the most prestigious high schools in Mongolia with students whose families could afford a comfor- In Extract 2, Temir incorporates the English proverb "Time is always short for those who need it", which is accompanied by the Mongolian phrase, "ntr gej megeel" (line 1). It is common for transnational online users to be engaged with multiple orthographic options, including one of the most common practices of shortening or abbreviating certain phrases and terms (Dovchin 2015;Sultana et al 2013). To this end, by omitting the vowel "e" from "ene ter", online users in Mongolia widely use "ntr", meaning "so on" or "et cetera".…”

“…It is by now a truism that young people who are not necessarily subject to transnational migration are nevertheless engaged with linguistic and cultural diversity via media, technology and other available resources (Sharma 2012;Sultana et al 2013Sultana et al , 2015. For example, young adults in the peripheries have access to a varied amalgam of linguistic and semiotic resources, producing a range of social and cultural identities (Pietikainen and Kelly-Holmes 2013).…”

Metrolingualism

“…Once we look at online language use (from Facebook to YouTube comments) by participants loosely located in cities as different as Dhaka or Ulaanbaataar (Sultana, Dovchin & Pennycook, 2013;2015), the diversity multiplies. But most importantly this metrolingual diversity suggests the need to stop talking in terms of languages as commonly understood.…”

“…For more on the Bangladesh fi lm industry, see Sultana, Dovchin and Pennycook (2013). For more on the Bangladesh fi lm industry, see Sultana, Dovchin and Pennycook (2013).…”