Periphery in the age of reimagining: Vernaculars and vitality in urban multicultural Asia

Abstract

In what is viewed as the second phase of postmodernity, in particular as defined by digitality, we are afforded challenges and opportunities for reimagining communities and vernaculars considered on the periphery. I focus on three ecologies that I suggest need to be appreciated for their significance in the language contact dynamics of this era. First I consider communities for whom computer-mediated communication (CMC) serves as a platform on which language practices beyond those used in the original, local context are widespread, even favoured. With Cantonese-dominant Hongkongers, for example, CMC promotes significantly more mixing with and calqueing into English, compared to spoken discourse – just as diasporic web-based communities of practice use their contact language variety more than in traditional writing or spoken face-to-face interaction. Such CMC practices have the potential to spread to other domains, and impact on the evolution of contact language varieties. Second, I highlight the multicultural city – and the urban linguistic diversity therein – as an important site for the positioning of minority languages. I use as counterpoints Singapore and Hong Kong: in the former, a historical moment prompts a re-evaluation of the place of heritage languages; in the latter, the debate on the integration of ethnic minorities continues to focus on the development of Cantonese competence. For both territories, I examine the role of social media and online resources, such as LinguisticMinorities.HK, in research, education, and advocacy. Finally, I consider how, in late capitalism, multicultural peripheral communities such as the Peranakans of Singapore – even with a shift from their ancestral vernacular – not only are able to maintain postvernacular vitality, but can also be positioned as a source of multilingualism and authenticity, with much to offer the Centre. What were traditionally communities and language practices on the margins are in a time of reimagining, in practice and in scholarship, and need to be valued for what they can reveal about language contact dynamics, trajectories, and evolution.