” A total hillbilly?”

Youth language and forming identity in a small island

community

160 U2K: No, you see, we have a rule here at school that says we161 U2K: cannot swear ((laughter)) so= 162 U9K: So I have replaced crap and fuck with= poop and =163 U2K: Oh, bother! ((laughter))164 U9K: Oh, bother or something like that! ((laughter))165 I: Poop, yes, that’s just hurting! ((laughter))166 U9K: Yes, but you know, when I visited my cousin on <place>167 U9K: beside <place> during Easter , and he, he got so angry with 168 U9K: me because I just sat there ”oh, poop, oh, otter”169 U9K: (”weird voice”), you know, there is no one saying otter 170 U9K: and,= I had to come up with something? ((laughter)) = 171 U9K: I felt really corny, people were swearing as hell, 172 U9K: and I sat there= ”poop” ((laughter)) 173 U2K: [((laughter))]174 I: And then they are thinking like ”so, that’s how the youths of 175 I: Løkta are like <giggling>176 U9K: Yeah, a totally hillbilly, that one! ((laughter))

Definitions Youth language: Language use among youths that quantitatively and/or

qualitatively differs from the elderly generation’s way of speaking Young people develop the dialect either by making new linguistic

variants or by accentuating already ongoing changes They also make use of an implicit and expressive conversational style

→ slang words → swearing → sound-words (wrooom, phow) → discourse markers (like, just / liksom, bare). → talking tempo→ shorter turns → interruptions

Such an implicit and expressive conversational style is not exclusive for young people! These features occur also in the language of adults, but normally in a more restricted sense both in relation to how much and also to when it is used

Identity

→ Essensialism → Constructivism Compromise: Identity is a set of inborn and

gained characteristics that make us who we are

Language as acts of identity The school of sociolinguistics: language as a social

matter The individual chooses the way she talks, based on

who she wants to be, or wants to be different from → Referred to as acts of identity by the sociolinguists Le Page and Thabouret-Keller

In this sense youths seem to be the perfect object to study…→ Tremendous search for identity and belonging

→ Language – in the same way as hairstyle, clothes and music preferences – becomes a symbolic expression of orientation

Background / motivation The study of youth language has been restricted to

urban centres and to a certain extent to larger, rural districts

It has not been investigated in sparsely populated areas before

→ Such areas lack what researchers believe are the premises for language variation in general: unstable social conditions and crossing social patterns among the inhabitants

Because of this and a natural curiosity of my own, I decided to visit the island Løkta to find out if any youth language existed there

About Løkta Løkta is located at the coast of Helgeland, almost in the middle

of Norway

Neighbouring towns: Sandnessjøen (south), Mo i Rana (east) and Mosjøen (southeast)

Løkta is part of the local government Dønna It has about 160 inhabitants The settlement is highly scattered The inhabitants usually work as farmers, but some also have

other kinds of jobs in Sandnessjøen Løkta has its own school with a primary and a secondary level The local patriotism and people‘s care for their island is striking:

→ the number of organisations (I counted 11) → the inhabitants are often seen in newspapers, protesting against disadvantageous decisions from the local government or promoting happenings at Løkta

Data collection The data was collected mainly through interviews 23 informants: eleven youths (14–16 years) and twelve

adults (44 to 82 years) 1. interview turn:

Aim: to record language Informants: youths and adults (in pairs)

2. interview turn:Aim: To understand the language situation Informants: only youths (separately)

Results: dialect The youths had less traditional dialect-forms than the

adults The innovative forms

also existed in the adults’ language, especially in the middle aged group

An ongoing change in the dialect at Løkta?

Conversational style The occurrence of typical youth conversational style-features

occurred more frequently among the youths than the adults All of the features were represented also in the adult language

(with exception of English slang s.a. cool, nerd) The use of the features was also qualitatively different

→ The youths used the discourse markers with more functions→ The youths had more elements of dramatization

Youth language at Løkta vs. in towns (earlier research)→ Typical youth conversational style-features were less frequent at Løkta → The youth language at Løkta was also qualitatively less typical: Youths in towns are found to use swearing with sexual themes, while the youths at Løkta swore exclusively with reference to the religious area (“conventional” swearing)

Youth language at Løkta: - acts of what identity? Accomodation theory: We talk similar to those we want to

resemble and different from those we won’t be associated with Traditionally youth language has been considered as a wish to

be different from the adult generation – or even as adult opposition

Can the youth language in Løkta be understood as if the youths wanted to have a different identity than the adults?

Several stated their parents as their ideals, and nine out of eleven said that their parents were just as important to them as their friends

The contact between the generations at Løkta was very strong

Youth language as act of youth lifestyle (cf. Steven Miles)

Young people are expected to relate to and keep up with the future in another extent than adults, something that necessarily leads to a different behaviour

Acting modern becomes central and socially necessary: If one doesn’t keep updated, in this case by using youth language, one can easily be branded as a hillbilly or something similar disadvantageous

Yet – not entirely modern: The youths at Løkta had a less typical youth language than youths in towns

They also rendered themselves as a more moderate youth than youths in towns

→ less conceited

→ less fashion-minded

→ they were also fully aware that their youth language was less marked than among youths in towns

267 I: What do you think of youths from towns?= Do you like 268 I: them? 269 U10K: Like? = Well= I do like them, but they are 270 U10K: different from us, indeed 271 I: How come? 272 U10K: There is the language, and the looks, and, they 273 U10K: are totally different from us, and the way they 274 U10K: behave, and= 275 I: The looks too? 276 U10K: Yes, you know, they have tons of make up<<giggling>>

Why don’t the youth at Løkta act entirely modern? Polarization towards the more modern youths in

towns It is not natural according to their habitus (customs,

upraising, culture, cf. Bourdieu); it is not considered accepted behaviour (doxa)

By being not entirely modern they make space also for the local, adult culture which they were a part of

Ivar Frønes: youth culture represents values that are incompatible with the local, traditional culture

By being just partly modern, the youths at Løkta manage to combine this→ A functional and social integration of the youths make them a part of the local, adult culture at Løkta (cultural integration, cf. Paulgaard)

Young people and adults at Løkta shared many of the same attitudes and values: the worry for their islands’ existence, the scepticism towards the local government priorities and the pride of Løkta

557 I: How is the typical inhabitant of Løkta? 558 U6M: Proud of the island and protecting. 559 I: Are you like that? 560 U6M: Yes, I am proud of being from here, and 561 U6M: when someone critizises it, I defend it the 562 U6M: best I can.

Summing up

There is a youth language at Løkta Still – it is less widespread at Løkta than

among youths in towns The youths at Løkta are both traditional

and modern, both hillbillies and youths, but not total hillbillies…