1 The relation between social and digital behaviour of Dutch Turks and Moroccans Margreet Dorleijn Universiteit van Amsterdam Jacomine Nortier Utrecht University

2 This presentation: Turkish and Moroccan communities Comparison of language choice, stylistic means and cs in spoken and digital language use by Turks and Moroccans, respectively. Examples throughout the presentation Conclusions

3 Turkish and Moroccan migrants in the Netherlands Real-life sociolinguistic situation ↑↓ Digital behavior

4 Are linguistic practices the same in real-life and digital communities? The question about usefulness of digital data will be addressed tomorrow in colloquium 378: Critical views on Methods and Practices in Research on Multilingalism

5 Why compare Turks and Moroccans? Because they are comparable in terms of Migration history Size Cultural background Socio-economic status

6 Migration history: Guest workers in sixties and seventies Family members joined husbands and fathers Chain migration: wedding partners from countries of origin

7 Size:

8 Cultural background: Religion: islam Socio-economic status: Low educational level Low income Poor housing Younger generations: strong upward mobility

9 Not comparable in terms of sociolinguistic situation: Moroccans: bilingual community Turks: monolingual community Moroccans: L1s have low prestige Turks: L1 has high prestige Moroccans: language is not an ethnic core value Turks: language is core value

10 (continued) Moroccans: loosely knit community Turks: closely knit community Moroccans: rapidly shifting to Dutch Turks: not (or slowly) shifting to Dutch

11 Linguistic behaviour in real life (as opposed to virtual behaviour) Language choice Stylistic means Functions of Code Switching

12 Language choice in daily life: Turks: Turkish – Moroccans: Dutch M:(…) I wouldn’t be able to talk with a Turkish group (..) they speak only Turkish, I wouldn’t want to sit with them I:Since they talk Turkish so that is a real hindrance for you T:Yes that’s not the case with Moroccan-, they really speak Dutch, you can easily sit or stand with them or whatever (…) I’ve never seen Moroccan girls who speak Moroccan, they go round speaking only Dutch.)

13 Moroccan flavoured Dutch as a style Moroccan (Turkish, etc) teenagers: Moroccan accent and occasional insertion of Moroccan functional elements: Stylistic means to express group membership, solidarity, ‘toughness’, ‘urban’etc. (Dorleijn & Nortier, 2005; Nortier & Dorleijn, forthc.)

14 CS in spoken language 2 nd and 3 rd generations: Turks: CS is often default mode of communication Moroccans: CS often marked choice with specific communicative intention; more use of monolingual Dutch

15 Digital Behaviour: choice Moroccans (either Berber or Arabic): Mainly Dutch, with Arabic/Berber insertions. Turks: Depending on topic.

16 Choice (continued) Depending on Topic: Conveying information about Dutch items: Dutch (with occasional Turkish insertions or alternations) Conveying information about Turkish items: Turkish (with occasional Dutch insertions or alternations). Informal chatter: continuous CS.

17 Style: Moroccan flavoured Dutch Basically phonological characteristics, but also the insertion of Moroccan Arabic functional elements. Traces of it (MfD) on Turkish site.

18 Example: (…)lekker bankje verwarming wa posters, bide laptoplar gelince tamam artik bizim mekan orasidir (…) a nice seat and posters, and when the laptops arrive, that will be our place to be (TurkishTexas.nl, september 2006)

19 A lot of examples on Moroccan sites, e.g.: Wa7ed goede morgen allemaal! One good morning everybody 3la zwakzinnig gevoel voor humor heb ik. What (a) retarded sense of humor I have

20 Code Switching on Moroccan sites: remarkably often CS for poetic language use (including puns, fun and wit): (and otherwise CS that can be interpreted in terms of ‘Markedness’ (Myers-Scotton) or ‘Contextualization Cues’ (Gumperz; Auer)

21 Example of poetic language use Je bent nog mooier dan mijn remra7, gezien vanaf de sta7, bij het krieken van de sba7. ‘You are even prettier than my court yard, seen from the roof, at dawn in the morning’ gataarlijk spul dangerous stuff (gataar – dangerous MA gevaarlijk – dangerous D)

22 Code Switching on Turkish sites 1.Occasional alternational CS, mostly in texts that convey information – mostly to be interpreted in terms of ‘contextualization cues’, ‘markedness’ (e.g. explorative use). 2.CS as the default mode in chat.

23 Example: 1. Contextualization cue (side comment): Maar wat wil het lot… (büyük konusmusuz) ik ben verliefd en zwaar ook. ‘But fate strikes… (that was easy to say at the time) I am in love and heavily as it is. ( September, 2006)

24 Example 2. Default mode: Is er geen moppen topic of zo, fikralar topigi falan var, mop guzel ama, her mopa bir topic acilirsa, is een beetje onnodig. ‘Is there no jokes topic or so, joke-PL topic-POSS or-so there-is, joke nice-is, but each joke-DAT one topic open-PASS-COND-3sg, is a little unnecessary.’

25 To wrap it up: 1.Digital linguistic behaviour is similar to real-life linguistic behaviour for both Moroccans and Turks. 2.Users of Moroccan descent consider their L1 as something extra, a source of fun and wit. In contrast to the Moroccan/Dutch forums, in Turkish/Dutch forums, we have not found that bilingualism in itself is employed as a source for wit or wordplay. 3.Are digital data useful??? (To be continued tomorrow….)

26 References Aissati, A. El (1996): Language Loss among Native Speakers of Moroccan Arabic in the Netherlands. Nijmegen: doctoral dissertation. Auer, Peter (1998) ‘Introduction to chapter 12’. Code-Switching in conversation. Language, Interaction and Identity. P. Auer (ed.). London/New York: Routledge Myers-Scotton, Carol (1993), Social Motivations for Codeswitching: Evidence from Africa. Oxford Studies in Language Contact; Clarendon Press. Dorleijn, M & J. Nortier (2006): Het Marokkaanse accent in het Nederlands: Marker of indicator? In: Artikelen van de vijfde sociolinguistische conferentie, eds. Tom Koole, Jacomine Nortier en Bert Tahitu, Delft, Nortier, J & M. Dorleijn (forthc.): A Moroccan accent in Dutch: restricted to the Moroccan community? IJB