Language, Youth and Identity in the 21st Century

The language of young people is central in sociolinguistic research, as it is seen to be innovative and a primary source of knowledge about linguistic change and the role of language. This volume brings together a team of leading scholars to explore and compare linguistic practices of young people in multilingual urban spaces, with analyses ranging from grammar to ideology. It includes fascinating examples from cities in Europe, Africa, Canada and the US to demonstrate how young people express their identities through language, for example in hip-hop lyrics and new social media. This is the first book to cover the topic from a globally diverse perspective, and it investigates how linguistic practices across different communities intersect with age, ethnicity, gender and class. In doing so it shows commonalities and differences in how young people experience, act and relate to the contemporary social, cultural and linguistic complexity of the twenty-first century.

Author Biography

Jacomine Nortier is Associate Professor in Sociolinguistics/Multilingualism in the Utrecht Institute of Linguistics at Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands. Bente A. Svendsen is Professor of Scandinavian Languages and Norwegian as a Second Language and the Deputy Director of MultiLing Centre for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan in the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies at Universitetet i Oslo.