In the Caribbean, where English-lexicon Creoles
are spoken alongside local varieties of Standard
English, Creole use has long been viewed as an overt
marker of local identity (e.g. Le Page and Tabouret-Keller,
Shields-Brodber 1997, Youssef 2004). However, less
is known about the mechanisms through which speakers
make use of Creole forms and how exactly identity
is performed in interaction. In this presentation,
I apply the concepts of indexical order (Silverstein
2003, Johnstone and Kiesling 2008) and enregisterment
(Agha 2006) to a series of videos called the Caribbean
Alphabet Series produced by TikTokers from Barbados,
Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago. The TikTokers draw
on widely known lexical items 鈥 third order indexes
鈥 to perform their identities as authentic, knowledgeable
speakers of their respective varieties, and thereby
contribute to the ongoing process of enregistering
these features as typical of those varieties. However,
the speakers also make use of first and second order
indexes, which allow them to do more subtle identity
work throughout the videos.
References
Agha, A. (2006). Language and Social Relations (Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Johnstone, B., & Kiesling, S. F. (2008). Indexicality and experience: Exploring the meanings of/aw/-monophthongization in
Pittsburgh 1. Journal of sociolinguistics, 12(1), 5-33.
Tabouret-Keller, A., & Le Page, R. B. (1985). Acts of identity: Creole-based approaches to language and ethnicity. Cambridge University Press.
Shields-Brodber, K. (1997). Requiem for English in an 鈥淓nglish-speaking鈥 community: The case of Jamaica. In E. Schneider (ed.)
Englishes around the world, 2, 57-67.
Silverstein, M. (2003). Indexical order and the dialectics of sociolinguistic life. Language & communication, 23(3-4), 193-229.
Youssef, V. (2004). 鈥業s English we speaking鈥: Trinbagonian in the twenty-first century. English Today, 20(4), 42-49. |
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