Unmooring language for social justice: young people talking about language in place in Manchester, UK

ABSTRACT

Unmooring language is a proposal for a language-based social justice concept that aims to go beyond national and local epistemologies of language in place. This article contributes to current discussions in critical sociolinguistics about how to conceptualize language bearing in mind the primacy of mobility and fluidity. Drawing on folk linguistics, local metalinguistic talk, and citizen sociolinguistics; this study explores how young people (aged 18–25 years) talk about the relationship between language and place in the urban city of Manchester, UK. Through 57 online questionnaires and eight semi-structured interviews, the study finds that participants’ descriptions of their linguistic repertoires foreground the primacy of motion and invite the fluidity of unmooring. It also indicates that while young people tend to have positive attitudes toward linguistic diversity in the city, some reported exposure to language-based discrimination, and others expressed different views on linguistic diversity. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of language-based advocacy and activism to ensure that linguistic diversity has a right to the city, a step to combat linguistic hostility and ethnolinguistic nationalism.

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge the contribution of Kate Pahl, Helen Sauntson, Naeema Hann, Samantha Wilkinson, and Elisha Hall in shaping the development of this article and thank them with gratitude. Thanks are due to the young people whose perceptions and experiences of/with language in the city helped me conceptualize the unmooring of language. I also give thanks to the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable insights, suggestions, and enthusiasm for this article.

I have no known conflicts of interest to disclose.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Manchester Metropolitan University [Research Accelerator Grant].