Language crossing of young adults in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

Based on an intensive ethnographic study in a university in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the paper explores ‘language crossing’ observable in casual and Facebook (FB) conversations of young adults in Bangladesh. The analysis of the data with ‘transglossic framework’ demonstrates that exaggerated pronunciation, slang and swear words in face-to-face conversations and orthographic patterns on FB make young adults’ language practices stylised and with the stylisation, they present polyphonic voices. These voices are the means for them, in their own ways, to cross the boundaries and minimise the social marginalisation they experience in their day-to-day life for their linguistic, demographic, educational, and socioeconomic backgrounds. In the process, however, they seem to perform hyper masculine misogynist and extremely nationalistic identities. Their stylisation indicates that language crossing is in a complex relationship with the societal ideologies and existing stark realities of their life. Consequently, the paper complicates the issue of ‘language crossing’, showing that stylisation ensures momentary empowerment of these young adults at the cost of sustaining and reinforcing the vicious circle of ideologies, promoting inequality, abuse, prejudices, and male supremacism. Therefore, the paper suggests studying ‘language crossing’ going beyond linguistic features and critically analysing it with reference to social stratification in the post-modern society.

KEYWORDS:

• Crossing
• stylisation
• voice
• transglossia
• identity
• Bangladesh

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Ms Katie Masters for her thorough meticulous constructive feedback on the first draft of the paper. The limitations are entirely mine.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr Shaila Sultana, Professor and the Head, Department of English Language, Institute of Modern Languages, University of Dhaka, and Associate, Adult Learning and Applied Linguistics Programme, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), has been educated at Jahangirnagar University (Dhaka), Monash University (Melbourne), King’s College (London), and UTS (Sydney). She is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Asia TEFL, Journal of Institute of Modern Languages, and Journal of South East University. Her research interests include – trans approaches to language and identity, sociology, critical geography, and the historical and sociocultural significance of English in post-colonial countries. She has authored articles in renowned international applied linguistics journals, such as Linguistics and Education, International Multilingual Research Journal, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Journal of Asia Pacific Communication, Asian Englishes, Translanguaging and Translation in Multilingual Contexts, International Journal of Multilingualism, and Journal of Sociolinguistics. Her co-authored book titled Popular culture, voice and linguistic diversity: Young adults on- and offline has recently been published from Macmillan, Palgrave. A chapter titled ‘Gender performativity in virtual space: Transglossic language practices of young women in Bangladesh’ has also been published in Language and Culture on the Margins. Global/Local Interactions from Routledge Critical Studies in Multilingualism.

Notes

1. The name of the university and the participants are pseudonyms. The names in capital letters, such as XX, KK and so on did not participate in the research, but agreed that their conversations could be used for research purposes.

2. Standard Bangla (SB), which is quite archaic in its use of highly Sanskritised lexis and pedantic lexical items, is considered as High variety; it is specifically used in written form for all kinds of formal communication and is reserved for written compositions. Standard Colloquial Bangla (SCB), by contrast, which has evolved from SB in simplified and colloquialised lexical items, is considered as Low variety and is specifically used in spoken form (Singh 1986). Hence this is called Standard Colloquial Bangla in academic discourse. Bangladeshis learn SB through formal education as a compulsory subject (similar to English) from primary to higher secondary levels, even though SCB is ‘respected by all as an elegant form of speech’ (Dil 1986, 452). Colloquial Bangla (CB) develops in communication of speakers of different regional varieties of Bangla and hence, it is also called ‘grammyo Bangla’ (village Bangla).

3. While using these words, Ashiq uses alliteration in lexicalisation, which is a common feature in spoken form of Bangla, such as in pat (drama) tat, brishti (rain) trishti, chobi (photo) tobi, ranna (cooking) banna, in which the second words (tat, trishti, tobi, banna) in the compound words do not bear any meaning. Ashiq contextualises ‘show’ in showshami in which shami does not carry any meaning itself in this specific context. Similar trend has been observed language practices of across all research participants, ‘meeting feeting’, ‘routine moutine’ and so on.

4. A same kind of hierarchy in language as a dimension of negotiation of identity has also been observed in a group of Dominican immigrant young adults in the USA. One of the research participant states, ‘it depends on where they come from, if they come from the campo or the farm whatever, it’s kind of different, cause you live with the cows and everything’ (Bailey 2007, 50).

5. While the content may be harsh, and while sexual violence is a disturbing issue that occurs worldwide, addressing these issues is beyond the scope of this paper.