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oa ‘Omg zo fashionably english’
Codeswitching to English as an identity practice in the chatspeak of Dutch young gay men
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: Taal en Tongval, Volume 69, Issue 1, Sep 2017, p. 47 - 70
Abstract
Abstract
Although the influence of English on Dutch is mainly visible in a large number of lexical borrowings (De Decker & Vandekerckhove, 2012; Berteloot & Van der Sijs, 2002), a newly compiled corpus of chat conversations between Dutch young adults shows that some native speakers of Dutch codeswitch to English in their Dutch conversations and use English creatively. In this study this is explained as an identity practice for young gay men in a community of practice where non-heteronormative gay-celebratory identities are constructed, due to the connotations of English with the (always English-speaking) entertainment in which these speakers can find multidimensional, young, and ‘cool’ gay role models.
© 2017 Amsterdam University Press