Yiddish, Kanak Sprak, Klezmer, and HipHop: Ethnolect, Minority Culture, Multiculturalism, and Stereotype in Germany

Abstract

Minority and immigrant Germans' embrace of the derogatory term Kanake as a self-ascription and of the low-status ethnolect Kanak Sprak has been compared to US rappers' combative use of "niggah" and Black English. This essay, however, compares the revaluation of the term Kanake, a non-assimilatory Kanak identity, and the ethnolect Kanak Sprak to some early 20th century German Jews' revaluation and embrace of Eastern European Jewish culture and Yiddish. It demonstrates also how non-minority and non-Jewish Germans have used Yiddish and Kanak Sprak in literature, theater, film, and popular culture to re-inscribe ethnic difference, especially at times when minorities and Jews were becoming indistinguishable from non-minority Germans (emancipation edicts or nationality law reform). Because Kanak Sprak is inseparable from HipHop culture, the second half of the essay examines the many parallels between the importation and naturalization of German HipHop and German Klezmer. Both were imported from the United States in the early 1980s; and following the fall of the Berlin Wall and German re-unification, both have played a role in German Vergangenheitsbewältigung [mastering the past]. While HipHop and Klezmer have become the soundtrack of German anti-racism, anti-Nazism, and multiculturalism; some observers are critical of non-minority and non-Jewish Germans' appropriation or instrumentalization of ethnic music, and have cited instances of antisemitism and racism in German Klezmer and HipHop.

The Role of the Speaker’s Emotional State in Im/politeness Assessments

“…The word pair nigger:nigga in American English reflects a split between the first term, which is used insultingly and carries connotations of racism, and the second term, which has become an in-group solidarity marker among African Americans (Dyson, 2001; Kennedy, 2002). Another example is German Kanake , which was originally used pejoratively to characterize immigrants of Turkish descent, but has since been reappropriated by German-born Turkish youth as an in-group identity marker (Loentz, 2006). The historical trajectory of these terms is similar: After starting out as pejorative, they become markers of solidarity and endearment among members of a specific subgroup (Greek youth, African Americans, German-born Turkish youth).…”

Guests and Hosts Revisited

“…They complain virtually about everything they see. Sometimes, I would encounter one or two who would openly call us crooks [Gauner] or even "Kanake" [a German derogatory term used against immigrants of Turkish descent in Germany (Loentz 2006)] (Anonymous interview with a local tour guide). This is a typical comment one would hear from some of the tour guides in Antalya region, whose almost entire livelihoods depend on all-inclusive tourism from Germany.…”

“…Germany’s treatment of its ethnic minorities and lack of their integration into the mainstream German society are examples that drew attention to the treatment of ethnic minorities in various societies (Kaya 2002, p. 46). We now know well that cultural differences between different groups of people often result in misunderstanding, stereotypes, prejudice, intolerance, and discrimination (Loentz 2006; Riordan 1978). While the major source of these conflicts may be simple misunderstandings among different groups of people or misinterpretations of each other’s worldviews, these are often politicized, escalated, and turned into violence, riot, ethnic cleansing, separation of nations, and sometimes wars.…”

Representations of Finnishness in Sweden

“…She has observed a difference between having limited knowledge of a language and conscious choosing of a particular register that is non-standard. These kinds of language variants can be referred to as sociolects, dialects, ethnolects, or multiethnolects; opinions concerning definitions vary among linguists (Kotsinas 1982;Loentz 2006). Quist (2005) makes the distinction between ethnolect and multiethnolect as follows: the linguistically deviant form from standard language should be treated as a variety in its own right, a so-called multiethnolect.…”

“…When majority speakers come to share a multiethnolect with minorities, we see an expression of a new form of group identity. Nonstandard variants have been studied especially in the UK and Germany (Auer 2002;Loentz 2006;Rampton 1995). In Scandinavia, ethnolects have been studied in the capital city areas of Sweden, Norway and Danmark (Kotsinas 1982(Kotsinas , 1988(Kotsinas , 1990Svendsen & Røneland 2008;Quist 2005;.…”