On this year’s International Mother Language Day, the UN is encouraging us to reflect on the role of technology in multilingual learning. Here, we are looking at the role of the Mongolian language social media Bainu (meaning “hello or are you there”) in disseminating metalinguistic discourses in China.
The Bainu social media platform in China
Bainu was founded by two young Mongols in 2015 and now it is the only surviving Mongolian language social media platform in China. A 2015 news report claims that there are around 400,000 registered users although that number has shrunk significantly since the government’s crackdown on Mongols’ protests against the 2020 bilingual education reform.
Although many subjects cannot be discussed openly on Bainu, one topic has never stopped attracting Mongols’ unwavering attention: the “purely” linguistic matters which include but are not limited to Mongolian grammar, spelling, translation, standardization, and regional dialects. Perhaps it is precisely because of the strict policing of social media spaces that seemingly “professional, innocuous, and apolitical” discussions of language proliferate there.
This map briefly settled the debate over “sheep meat” vs “sheep’s meat”
Big debate: “sheep meat” or “sheep’s meat”?
A long-running debate has been over whether it is honin mah (literally “sheep meat”) or honin-ii mah (“sheep’s meat”). To support their respective arguments users post pages from their old middle school grammar textbooks or carry out surveys among speakers from different regions. Recently, the debate was briefly settled (it has now flared up again) when one Bainu user, to the awe of many, triumphantly posted a self-made language map.
This map at least temporarily resolved the question that has intrigued, excited, and frustrated Bainu users for months. The map maker, having attributed the differences in expressions to regional differences, did not forget to settle another long-lasting debate, too: whether it is “putting on a hat” or “wearing a hat”. According to the map, the regions with red shade are areas where “sheep meat” and “putting on a hat” are commonly used, while the rest say “sheep’s meat” and “wear a hat.”
Translation debates
Apart from grammatical problems and dialect differences, the translation of new terms is another field of battle where foes and friends are made. In June 2020, the question of how to translate “emoji” into Mongolian sparked a spirited debate. Some advocated for a native Mongolian word while others supported charaiin ilerel, which is a word-for-word translation from Chinese: 表情 (“facial expression”). Yet others have adopted an internationalist stance and have chosen emoji. My observation over the year 2021 suggests that emoji seems to be winning out among Bainuers.
But not all terms are controversial as shown in their almost unanimous approval of translating “barbecue” into shorlog, or the terms translated by the volunteer translation group anabapa, mostly comprised of Bainu users (see “brake light” image).
Why do metalinguistic discussions proliferate on social media?
Emoji on Bainu
You might wonder why Bainu has become a key platform where metalinguistic discussions proliferate or why users are so keen to translate new terms to replace the common Chinese loans in Inner Mongolia, or to what extent these Mongolian translations are successful.
You can find an answer in a new study of Mongolian linguistic purism discourse on Bainu by myself and my co-author Cholmon Khuanuud. In the study, we situate purist discourses in the sociopolitical, cultural, and linguistic context of Inner Mongolia. We show that the weakened autonomy of minority Mongols compounded by the spread of market economy, and China’s drive to build a nation essentially following the “one people, one language (Mandarin Chinese)” model exerts tremendous pressure on the maintenance of Mongolian language. This produces linguistic anxiety, and it underpins purist discourses saturating mediatized spaces such as Bainu.
“Mixed” Mongolian as an emblem of loss
We find that, apart from translating new terms, another two key purification strategies are prominent in Bainu. First, as with language activists in many other minoritized communities, Mongol purists construct “mixed” Mongolian as an emblem of loss, including the loss of land, culture, political rights, racial “purity,” and language over the last seven decades. By doing so, they stigmatize “mixed” speech forms, raise awareness about ethnolinguistic boundaries, and invoke historical experiences.
What is noteworthy is that the explicit association of the losses experienced by minority Mongols with mixed language has almost disappeared since the 2020 reform for fear of punishment.
Another widely used purification strategy is to faithfully transcribe “mixed” everyday speech and post it on Bainu. In particular, by positioning the transcribed “mixed” speech vis-à-vis the “pure and correct” Mongolian, purists banish the “mixed” speech to the realm of non-language.
In the context of Inner Mongolia, the stigmatizing power garnered by the orthographic representation of “mixed” Mongolian also has to do with the highly-ideologized classical (vertical) Mongolian script. This traditional script has been retained in Inner Mongolia while abandoned in the country of Mongolia for the Cyrillic script in the 1940s. Clearly, the purists’ transcription of “deviant and impure speech” through the medium of a valued classical Mongolian script enhances the shaming effect.
To learn more, including how the transnational status of Mongolian language influences purist discourses, who exactly Bainu users are, what “wooden Mongolian” is, or how technology impacts minority language ideology and practices or vice versa, our article has just been published in the Journal of Sociolinguistics – it is open access so feel free to click through to the journal!
Reference
Related content
Baioud, Gegentuul. (2020). Fighting Covid-19 with folklore. Retrieved from https://www.languageonthemove.com/fighting-covid-19-with-folklore/
Baioud, Gegentuul. (2020). Will education reform wipe out Mongolian language and culture? Retrieved from https://www.languageonthemove.com/will-education-reform-wipe-out-mongolian-language-and-culture/
Piller, Ingrid. (2017). Anatomy of language shaming. Retrieved from https://www.languageonthemove.com/anatomy-of-language-shaming/
Piller, Ingrid. (2017). Explorations in language shaming. Retrieved from https://www.languageonthemove.com/explorations-in-language-shaming/
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Nowadays, we use social media to share our daily events and express our inner feelings through pictures or words. I agree with Clara that we need to be more careful about what we share or post on social media. Sometimes we post something that seems okay to us but can be offensive to someone or some community. And I have seen many incidents where online fights create a great mess. Not only this, but sometimes we can’t understand what we should post on social media and start sharing everything that happens in our daily life. It can be a threat to our privacy which we should maintain. It is also a matter of self-reputation.
Currently, we’re living in the era of information whereas social media is one of the prime instruments to deliver information. On one hand, by being an instrument, social media is directly affected by technology and social context. The usage of teen code that Dung mentioned is an interesting example. Teen code was “created” because of the limitation of mobile phones (the ones with buttons and no touch screen), to press the letter “c” people must press the button “2” three times when they’re composing English texts, and five times in Vietnamese texts. The limitation of SMS texting is also a crucial part of forming the teen code. Usually, one SMS is limited to 160 characters but only 70 characters in Vietnamese SMS (when the SMS contains one or more letters with Vietnamese tone marks). Therefore, teenagers “invented” teen code, a method to adapt those limitations. On the other hand, social media has been affecting and changing our lives, and even our languages. Many slang words, and words appeared and changed reflecting phenomena and trends on social media. For example, the word “selfie” was created because of social media. Dung’s comment reminds me of my younger self when I used to read my friends’ status on Facebook using a “brick phone” at midnight and then talk about it the following day.
Thanks, Kelly, I’ll keep that in mind 😉
Speaking of the “mixed” language, i have to say, in China, there are many dialects in different areas and districts. Such as Liuzhou Guangxi, a small city in the south of China, famous for a spicy cuisine-Luosifen, my hometown. We will use the local dialect in the daily lives, but school.As this article mentions, China has abided the “one people, one language (Mandarin Chinese)” policy for a long time which is not a bad thing actually. China is a big country with rich culture, It will be inconvenient and not negotiable if we have too many languages to speak. But it’s worthy to say , we can speak our dialects in daily life.My dialect sounds very aggressive due to its syllable stress and intonation. When we speak our dialect, we might be regarded as arguing from others who doesn’t speak this language which is interesting for local people. Because of long-term speaking this dialect, someone might speak mandarin with dialect tones, we will call this “mixed”language in China commonly.
This platform is beneficial for the diversity culture , Even though China’s policy exits , this helps the maintenance and inheritance of the Mongolian to the coming generation. From the aspects of finance and politics, Mandarin plays a significant role. But for the culture, these kinds of platforms and organization are tremendous valuable.
Thank you, Shiyi,ke! You are right to point out that a national language has many benefits. But that doesn’t mean smaller languages should not be used and taught. People have the capacity for bilingualism …
Thanks, Ayesha! You are right that change is the only constant – but that people like to argue about language seems another universal fact …
Thanks, Kelly! Last year, one of my Chinese students told me that I sound angry when I sign off with a smiley (😊) – it has made me a bit self-conscious about using smileys 😉 … what’s your take on this question?
For the emoji 😊 , it is comparable to “Mona Lisa’s smile” to express anger, but it means to hold back for a while and there is a feeling of “you are happy” speechless. Therefore, it has the meaning of ridicule, more expressing “hehe”, a feeling of being speechless to the other people with negative emotions. We generally don’t use this emoji, so it’s best to use it sparingly. Many times when we want to express a “smile”, we will use the emoji 😉 with a little playfulness to express joy or happiness.
Oh that is fascinating, thanks for explaining that so well!
Agreed 😉
Thanks Kelly! Good to know this.
Thank you, PurebearJo, for sharing these striking examples! I’ve been wondering about that, too: why is the Japanese influence felt so strongly while similar levels of borrowing from Chinese and English are not considered a problem? or even welcomed?
Talking about social media, now as I am in Australia, whenever I post a picture online, I am always concerned with the usage of Hindi or English. There are many relatives of mine who don’t understand English at all and that’s why I had some situations where I had to explain them about my post.
The usage of Hinglish (Hindi written in Latin alphabets) is increasing in India because its easier for all those people who are not proficient in English but they do know how to read text written in Latin letters. This happens because most students gain the ability to read and write in English but still have difficulty in its proper usage due to lack of practice in their daily lives and various other factors connected with the schooling system. Talking about rural areas, people still communicate in Hindi language on social media platforms, but the way English has a strong impact on social media, in the coming years, I would say the usage of Hindi would be replaced by Hinglish, because technically Hinglish is still Hindi language, only the symbols/alphabets are different.
Thanks, Ross, for the interesting prediction. Would this be the 3rd script in which Hindi is written (after Devanagari and Persian)? And do you think, if your prediction comes true, Hinglish will become a different language, like Urdu?
Hi Ross, it makes sense that posting content for people in different countries and with different language backgrounds can be tricky. I think it’s very useful being able to speak with someone who speaks all of the languages you speak, so that there’s no need to filter out or code switch around parts that wouldn’t be understood. In my experience, that gives a lot of freedom when speaking. May I ask if you normally use Hindi, Hinglish, English, or a combination of the three when posting on social media, or does it vary between posts, depending on the content and who it’s mainly for?
I am also wondering, how well do Hindi phonetics align with the roman alphabet? I think that was one of the topics in the lecture video, but some languages with different phonetic systems are carried better by the roman alphabet than others. For example, when I was first studying Japanese, I made assumptions about the pronunciation of different sounds based on their romanisation. It was only later that I realised some Japanese phonetics (like the R/L sound) do not have a Latin alphabet equivalent, and that relying on the Roman alphabet skews the pronunciation.
Hi Ross,
Than you so much for your ideas. Your sharing about the languages that people in your country are using genuinely left a deep impression on me. This is because I have recently read some papers about a number of minority languages are put at a high risk of becoming extinct. It is believed that the disappearance of many language derives from the thriving of English. Besides, the loss of linguistic diversity is a result of globalisation, political persecution, and a lack of preservation. In terms of the drawbacks of language loss, the possibility for more diversity in art, music, literature, and oral traditions is also lost when humanity loses a language.
On the other hand, Hindi is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world as it is used by many communities such as Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Therefore , in the near future, I am sure that Hindi will still stay in need or even flourish. Indeed, despite the fact that some language changes are unavoidable, social media and the Internet greatly contribute to the survival and conditions of Hindi. The distinctions between different languages are fading on social media. Social media can encourage multilingualism and boost linguistic variation as speakers stray from mainstream, traditional languages and their grammar and spelling standards disintegrate. Furthermore, members of the group who speak endangered languages share information about them via online platforms such as Facebook , possibly inspiring others to become interested in and study them.
Hey Ross, great reply to the article!
Going on about your comment about Hinglish (Hindi written with Latn alphabets), I see this too in Arabic where there are a lot of people using ‘7’ in their posts. It would be a fantastic area to study in the future whereby if trends like Hinglish or Arablish is a new form of communication on social media. The Latin alphabet is so dominant in the world that almost no one can escape it and the nature and history of the Hindi language could be changed due to the effects/rise of social media.
Great comment!
In the era of social media prominence, these platforms allow people, especially the young to present themselves in an authentic way. Unfortunately, Vietnamese social networks more than often serve as a stage for public shaming and hate speech.
In my case, I rarely upload my personal life or talk about social issues after numerous times seeing people receiving rude and even cursed comments over seemingly harmless updates or pictures (E.g their way of dressing, the food options to feed their kids…). More concerningly, children are adopting these languages really fast and abuse them, resulting in negative effects on others’ lives or even violence in the real world. This could be explained by their exposure to hate speech under the idea of ‘free speech’ that circulates almost everywhere in the media.
Despite efforts of governments, schools and parents, I wonder whether it could help students realise the main function of social media platforms before they are forced to stop using them because of Internet hates.
Thanks you, Quynh! You raise some really important questions about the harms of social media, both as negative mental health outcomes and social dissolution. I think one way to protect young people is actually through engaging them in alternative leisure activities, including book reading 😊
Thank you for sharing your perception of the situation. I believe that language has a strong connection with the culture. Language is one of the major factors which unite people belonging to the same culture. The ways of teaching children also varies in different cultures and therefore results in the formation of somewhat similar mindsets within a culture. This is one of the reasons why hate speeches come up on social media platforms whenever someone tries to break free from the common cultural norms. But, the bad part is that most of these people who are involved in arguments over social media belong to a certain level of literacy and are adamant about their opinions of the world and therefore are closed off to new ideas and opinions.
The relationship between culture and language is a beautiful relationship, but in today’s world of new ideas and perceptions, this bond between culture and language can act as a chain holding back a lot of people from entering into new arenas of literacy and wisdom.
Dear Quynh,
We probably share the same worries about how to guide pupils in understanding the main purpose of social media and using it properly. There is no doubting that children nowadays use social media sites like Facebook, Tiktok, and Instagram from a very young age. Even though I am mindful that many social media networks already prohibit offensive language or comments, it is still ineffective. Children quickly imitate the language they encounter online and use it on a regular basis without giving it any thought. As a result, some of the words are misused and leave a negative impression on the minds of others.
One unfortunate fact is that Viet Nam is among the nations with the lowest levels of online civility. I firmly believe that this outcome is greatly influenced by hate speech on social media and people’s attitudes about it. “If you want to change the world, first change yourself,” Dan Pearce once stated. I believe that I should be more cautious anytime I post comments on social media and that every adult should act as a role model for youngsters to follow, both in real life and online.
Hi Quinh, thanks for sharing, I am very sorry that this is happening on Vietnamese social media, the same thing is also happening on Chinese social medias. There is one social media platform in China called 小红书 （little red book), this social media was initially designed for people to share their lives and it attracted lots of female users, they would share pictures of their makeup and outfit etc, or just share very personal aspect of their lives. However, this social media has been trying to attract more male users by using their female users’ pictures as a bait. And when the male users come in, they would leave highly inappropriate or even slutshaming comments on those female users, as a result, more and more female users choose to quit this platform and the environment has been very toxic compared to before.
Dear Quynh,
I also rarely upload my private life on social media for the same reasons.
There are four representative portal sites in Korea (Daum, Naver, Kakao, and Nate), and these sites deleted the comment section under entertainment news. It is because there was an increasing number of committing suicide by celebrities.
According to statistics from the Korean National Police Agency, 14,908 cases of online defamation and insults occurred through Internet postings with malicious comments in 2016 alone.
In addition, the Korea Communications Commission released the data that 48% of teenagers and 29% of people in their 20s have experienced writing malicious comments.
I also have doubts about when to allow children access to social media and platforms. Some advantages of early immersion in online reading were cognitive skills, such as multitasking (Wolf & Barzillai, 2009).
However, Gary Caller and Jay Papasan, authors of the book “One Thing,” found that multitasking people have a poor sense of predicting the time needed to do something and tend to waste 28 percent of their working hours every day.
Therefore, I agree with professor that positive and productive activies such as book reading would be recommendable for children. I also wonder how such activies be good habits for children.
wow – these are really shocking numbers! Social media fuel anger and controversy for their profit, and that has negative consequences not only for individuals but also society. I firmly believe that deep reading is one of the antidotes to the dangers of new media (and, btw, Wolf & Barillai don’t advocate multitasking)
Thank you for the article.
Generally in Bangladesh most of the people specially teen boys and girls uses Bengali language for communicating with each other. However, they don’t use Bengali alphabets, rather they use english alphabets to express Bengali. Now a days, using two or more languages in a single context or conversation is trend here specially in social sites which is known as code switching. But the people are unaware of this term and perform it for sheer convenience in colloquial practice and communication. I like to use emoji in regular conversation because with a single emoji, it is possible to express inner feeling without saying or writing anything. It also saves our time. So I think, social media users should use positive emojis in their digital conversation.
🙏👍😂😉
Thanks for sharing, Abdulla. I believe code-switching is quite prevalent today. Especially for bilingual or multilingual people, code-switching occurs naturally and unconsciously. The majority of code-switching occurs in spoken language because our brains do not have enough time to select the appropriate words, so we frequently mix up the languages.
I think that emojis are a useful tool for more vividly delivering a message. Occasionally, writing can only transmit the intended message or information, but not our emotions or tone of voice. Therefore, I believe emojis are a useful approach to conveying the tone of a message. Although I do not use emojis on a regular basis, I do so when it’s essential to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.
Hi, Abdulla! Thank you for sharing!
I often code switching when communicating on social media for a variety of reasons. For example, when communicating with my biracial friends on a topic, I used another language because I couldn’t remember or lack an appropriate way to express it. I think code switching can be seen as a sociolinguistic tool for bilinguals.
Speaking of emojis, emojis have gradually become a popular way for people to communicate on social media. I am a person who likes to use emojis when communicating on social media. Sometimes a simple emoji can express my mood more appropriately than cumbersome text.
I don’t know how did I learn Bangla when I was a kid. It seems really difficult now to realize how complex process it was at that time, although it was my mother tongue. When I need to know about a new language, which I’ve never known about, seems crazy. This article describes the terms which are extremely strenuous. However, at the same time, describes a lot of wandering prospects of a language which is under the controversy of the linguists. What surprised me the most is the losses of some Mongols whose mixed language has almost disappeared since the 2020 reform for fear of punishment. It is very hard to accept that code-mixing or mixed language is strongly being demolished by the purists of real language. I believe in the spontaneous transformation of language. Why there has to be so many restrictions? Why can’t we let the language grow from one phase to another?
In my opinion, the debates between rule makers need to be lightened. I see, in sharing from other languages has no fallacious issues when a language naturally evolves over time. Modern English itself has changed through time, and so will be other languages as well.
Hi Ayesha!
I also believe that restrictions should not be imposed in the transformation of a language. While language is the medium of communication, we should let it develop and adjust freely according to people’s needs and preferences. Under globalization, the convenience of the Internet for cultural contacts catalyzes an overlapping in distinct cultures, it is inevitable to have these unique cultures collide and evolve something new (e.g. universal Internet memes and loanwords). For instance, Korean words like hallyu and mukbang, which represent the growing influences of the popular K-pop culture around the globe, are being added to the Oxford English Dictionary.
However, I kind of understand why some Mongolians insist on language purism in social media. A language or dialect can represent one’s cultural identity. Unlike the voluntary and positive acceptance of the Korean cultures that sprouts around the world, the language unification of Mandarin in Mongolia is not something that occurred naturally or adjusted for the preferred trend by the locals, in fact, there are lots of government interferences being imposed, which are possibly some attempts to erase the unique Mongolian linguistic heritage and identity for state control. Language purism there is probably the safest way for them to retain their cultural identities, cultures and traditions.
Like most Chinese people, I use Mandarin to communicate with friends and family through social media in my daily life. Since my typing is slow when communicating, it has gradually developed to basically Mandarin plus emojis. As I continue to use it, I find that emojis are useful for making online communication fun and simplified. To a certain extent, it makes up for the emotional attitude that is difficult to express in words. Since the meaning of emojis may have multiple interpretations, during conversations on social media, the key information that expresses attitudes should be expressed in words as much as possible or emojis that are not easy to cause ambiguity should be selected to clarify the true meaning of both parties. This can avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and disputes. In addition, when I was chatting with friends, I was surprised to find that the same emoji can also be displayed differently in different mobile devices. For example, the “embarrassed smile” emoji in IOS system is displayed as “happy smile” in Android system. This can easily lead to misunderstandings on both sides. I almost got into a fight with friends because of this, but we both quickly realized the problem.
Hi Kelly. can’t agree more about the different meanings of one emoji in two different systems. What happened to me is that when I chat with my friend by texting. I was trying to react to what she said by sending an emoji. After I choose the emoji that is suitable for what I wanna express. Normally the emoji would show as words on my written board. For example 😀 will be written as “/smile” on the board, and I can finally see the emoji after I sending through. There are many times that the words of the emoji get me wrong when the facial expression is exactly what I want. I think the systems might have cultural differences as well haha. So that we think of emojis or facial expressions in a different way.
We live in a world of technology these days, and it is undeniable that social media has become an indispensable part of our lives. I firmly believe that regardless of where they are from or what language they speak, this is a fantastic platform for people to share their cultures, beliefs, or interests. In addition, social media makes communication much simpler than it used to be.
Typically, I use social media platforms to share memorable moments of my life or simply consider them a tool to communicate and chat with my friends. When I decide to post something on the Internet, I always think carefully about my language as not only my friends but also professors, pupils, and parents can see my post. It will be inappropriate if I include slang or swear words in my post. The language here can be either English or Vietnamese, as sometimes I feel more comfortable when using English. People can easily judge someone through the language that they use to communicate. If they see unsuitable words on my Facebook, they will think that I am not a good person and even blame my parents for teaching me the wrong way.
Thanks, Clara! Social media tempt people to let their guard down and show anger or other negative emotions for clicks (and ultimately the profit of Facebook or other platform). You are right to be careful and that’s important to teach the next generation who grow up with social media.
Hi Claura,
I totally agree with your perspective about the effects of profanity on one’s perceptions and judgments about the speaker. My parents used to ban me from social media until I got caught having a cloned Facebook account. They realized that setting restrictions on using social media could make me curious and try to gain access to social media in sneaky and risky ways. Consequently, I got permission to have social media accounts after promising to protect my own privacy, consider my reputation, and not give out personal information. Besides, my parents also helped me to form the habit of thinking twice before posting. For example, I always set my Facebook post to only me first and then return to it an hour later to determine if the language used in this post is appropriate enough to make it public. This will prevent me from publishing content that I may regret later.
Thanks, Tu Nguyen! That’s a really good habit; and great tip to share with other parents!
Thank you for giving me such an intriguing insight about the influence of social media on keeping the purity of language. Reflecting on my social media use, if my facebook posts were the announcements for my friends, these posts will be written in two languages: my native language- Vietnamese and my second language- English. For example, I used to post invitations to my graduation ceremony in both English and Vietnamese. The Vietnamese version was for inviting my relatives who are monolingual while the English writing was for my foreign friends and anyone who preferred reading English. However, these were not veridical translations, as a Vietnamese version also comprised some Vietnamese slang words used by youngsters in my generation. These words were omitted from the English version because it would not be crucial to individuals unfamiliar with Vietnamese culture.
Thank you, Tu Nguyen! Like you, I say different things in different languages, even if the key point (e.g. invitation) is the same. Does that make us different people in different languages?
I used to do the same thing of posting on Facebook using two languages, one for my relatives overseas and one for my friends in Australia. I think that most bilingual users did that. however, there is an option to translate any post to your preferred language. I am not sure if it is a new feature on Facebook, but I have to admit that it is a smart one. For example, I have a friend who lives in Italy and mostly posts in Italian; now, I can understand what he types and reply to the post using our first language.
Thanks, WAA! Do you think language learning will become unnecessary in the future as automated translation improves and becomes more ubiquitous?
No, I do not think so. As we can see when we use online translation apps, automated translation is not 100% correct. Yes, translation software can translate words and provide us with very well-structured sentences but still can’t translate the cultural behind the words.
In Korea, “emoticon” is widely used rather than an “emoji”. I searched “emoji” in the dictionary, and it says ” Emoji is a Japanese English expression”. Koreans seem to have different attitudes toward English and Japanese expressions as foreign words. English expressions such as buses, coffee, television, computers, ice cream, and T-shirts are translated into Korean as they are pronounced almost similar to English.
However, the public’s view on the remnants of Japanese seems different. There was movements to inform people of the remnants of Japanese and let them to avoid using Japanese expressions. In particular, the Ministry of National Defense defined Japanese expressions as “enemies of the language in the military”(https://kookbang.dema.mil.kr/newsWeb/20150813/57/BBSMSTR_000000010026/view.do), and Samsung C&T launched a campaign to eradicate Japanese terms at construction sites (http://www.newsway.co.kr/news/view?ud=2013100809552325669) .
In the case of Samsung C&T, they distributed the construction site glossary( changed 300 Japanese terms to Korean) online. However, I have never heard of such movements and in-house campaigns about English. What could be the reason? These make me wonder if there is any other reason, whether it is because we have lived in a colony for 30 years under Japanese rule or because we are so rooted.
Thanks for sharing! This is so interesting! Regarding the influence of Japanese I only read a popular TV drama-like novel Pachinko, clearly I need to read more.
Thanks, Trang! luckily, we don’t need emojis in spoken communication because we can simply smile or frown, and provide all those other paralinguistic signals that are lacking in writing…
I think that language mixing is quiet common in nowadays due to that more and more people are living in the mixed culture. In China, I remember that when I was in private school, speaking local dialect was not allowed in order to promote Mandarin at that time. Until now, the government encourages people to learn and speak local languages. It is true that the local culture has been shaped since the Mandarin promotion, and now China do want to protect them. Chinese of my generation are all living in more than two cultures, one is from parents (local one), and the other one is from the common society. Not to mention the people who have the experience studying or working aboard. I don’t think we should draw line to distinguish different languages, but I believe should learn more to achieve barrier-free communication, just like the social media does.
Thanks, Maya! Couldn’t agree more but overcoming language barriers is not always easy …
Almost in every social media post I made, there are always English words in my Indonesian and vice versa, or when I speak in Sasak, I code and switch as I wish. Language mixing is helpful. I can speak and write fast, no need to pause or think too long, I can just retrieve any words from my mental lexicon. In South Jakarta, Indonesian youth slang not only consists of Indonesian words but also many words from and are English i.e., me time, insomnia, noted, ghosting, toxic, which is (wicis), etc.
And when I speak in English, I feel slightly kind of a different person. I feel like I am more expressive and braver. When I speak in my local tongue and in Indonesian, I think I am more polite and am able to explain things better. But, when I mix those languages up, I feel like who I am 😊.
Thanks, Tram, for this detailed and insightful explanation! Or should I say detained and insightfun expnanation 😉
It is undeniable that social media has changed the way people use language and communicate with one another. Social media has made it possible for us to communicate with a far wider group of individuals on a worldwide basis than we could have previously done. Besides, our usage of words is influenced by the words we hear and see every day. Language now changes as a result of our engagement with technology because so much of the written language we see now is on the screens of our computers, tablets, and smartphones. In addition to this, since the language we use to speak with one another is typically more adaptable than the language used in formal writing, the combination of informal, personal communication and the wide audience made possible by social media is a prescription for rapid change.
To be specific, acronyms, abbreviations, and neologisms has proliferated around technologically mediated communication to help us be understood. For example, instead of typing “happy” to express the feeling of pleasure and satisfaction, many people save their time by sending emoticons such as “😊” or acronyms such as LOL “laughing out loud”.
More importantly, since numerous words now have entirely new meanings in online contexts, verbal communication suffers as a result. For instance, wall, which can be described as the homepage of an individual‘s social media profile or ping, which means to make contact with someone by sending a brief electronic message.
Hi Trang,
I agree that the Internet has transformed the way people use languages as they are required to read and write at a fast pace to process the abundant amount of information and to catch up with the quick interactions while multitasking. Therefore, it is easy to come across acronyms, as you mentioned, both to save time and to follow the norms of online communication. I believe that rather than seeing this as the erosion of “pure English”, it should be considered as innovative ways to optimize language uses to the level of efficiency that matches the fast pace of our lives, which might be different from the past when information was transmitted at a slower rate due to the lack of Internet. As society evolves, so does the language to serve people’s needs at that particular time.
It is also interesting to see how languages change because of pop cultures’ impacts, such as turning nouns into verbs (“Googling”), new vocabularies understood by a particular community (“poggers” among gamers), and the multi-meanings of familiar words (“you’re so based”). Though sometimes difficult to understand, it is exciting to witness how non-linear, fluid, and dynamic languages are being exposed to different generations and contexts. Languages, like everything else, are never static; it changes as people and society grow!
Thanks, Tviq! Can you tell us more about the ‘debate’ over Mandarin and dialects you are alluding to?
In Vietnam, there are many regions with different accents and dialects. Before the existence of social media, people simply accepted the differences between different regions. But since Facebook and Tiktok have been widely used, there have been various minor disputes on social media. They are mostly about how things are called in different regions but they quickly settled. Though, there is one exception, the phenomenon of completely switching between “l” and “n” in some districts or provinces in the north of Vietnam. Not only do they switch in speaking but also in writing, this triggers many people since they considered that is a misspelling. (Ex: the word “Laos” in Vietnamese is “Lào”. However, people from some of the northern provinces speak and write it as “Nào”)
Although the argument is minor, it never ends. The people from these regions show that that’s how they were taught, even the alphabets were taught differently (“L” – long “L” and “N” – short “L”). However, people from other regions only allow the matter of having dialects in speaking but not in writing. Things get stranger since Facebook and Tiktok become more popular, and people from other regions started to “misspell” words to reflect their dialects and got accepted, but sadly, not the case with “l” and “n”. People who “misspell” “l” and “n” still refuse to change despite being told that they are misspelling or being “lisp”. They insist on writing as how they speak, and that’s their “mother tongue” and they won’t change who they are.
Thanks for sharing, Tram! Technology and its accessibility give rise to new debates around languages/dialects is so well demonstrated.
I believe that social media platforms are brilliant for exchanging a variety of languages and cultures among different people. I often use many emoji and abbreviations on social media, such as Instagram, Kakao Talk, which is a Korean texting app, or WhatsApp. In particular, I often use moving or sounding emoji and stickers when I use chat apps to show my emotions and respond to messages, for example, by sending “Like it” or “Nice” emoji. It is more convenient and easier to deliver my feelings to them than to write them down. Furthermore, I also use many abbreviations, such as “Muk-bang,” which means a live-streamed video where viewers watch the host eat; or “TMI,” which means “Too Much Information.” It is extremely common in South Korea and has even been produced a lot. I think it is because I and other people want to share ideas quickly and it settles as a habit.
To be honest, the abbreviation is a controversial issue in Korea. It has been a common phenomenon among the younger generation, so if you do not know about abbreviations, you cannot communicate with them. In addition, it destroys the rules of Korean grammar, and it widens the generation gap between one generation and another. Furthermore, even foreigners use some of the abbreviations, such as Muk-bang, so it threatens the traditional Korean language as well.
Thanks, Haein! I’d never heard about Muk-bang before. Can you tell me more? What is the attraction? Why would anyone watch anyone else eat on video?!
I know that, at some point, it is difficult to understand why people watch the Muk-bang that someone is eating. However, it attracts many types of people. For example, people who are on a diet watch that to satisfy their craving for food instead of watching the videos, and many foreigners watch that to learn how to eat Korean foods and to know the popular foods in Korea. Furthermore, the host of live-streamed video combines the food creatively, such as spicy Korean fried chicken with cheese fondue, so many viewers can learn and try those combinations. Personally, I sometimes watch that when I miss Korean food that I can’t find in Sydney!
Oh, I see! Sounds like it would make you miss the food even more … at any rate, I’m intrigued. If you share a recommendation, I’ll look it up 😊
Hello Haein. Thanks for sharing your thoughts about the controversial phenomenon of young people using abbreviations in South Korea. I can really relate to your comments. I often don’t understand the abbreviations that are being used in the social media so I looked them up in Naver (Korean search engine) to find out the meaning. What the MZ generation consume these days is such a hot topic. It’s so interesting that our society labels today’s youth MZ generation (Millennials and Gen Z) and pays attention to their language use. Their characteristics are so different from the previous generation particularly in the way they consume and manipulate language. They prefer to use newly-coined words and even make new words by shortening the original words or combining two or three words. They relish every opportunity to use these new or adapted words among themselves. It’s really shocking whenever I come across the new abbreviations that I cannot guess the meaning of. There is a concern that the way MZ uses language exacerbates the generation gap and leads to language loss. It’s critical that we should build understanding between generations by giving older generation access to learning new abbreviations such as broadcasting fun quiz games, because there is no way prevent youth from creating their own language culture.
Hi Haein. Thank you for sharing. I agree with you that social media platforms are excellent for facilitating cross-cultural and linguistic exchanges amongst individuals. Social media helps people communicate with each other interactively and effectively. Thanks to your comment, I have just reflected on the way how I use social media and realized that I often use emojis and abbreviations more than I thought. Recently, there are more and more emojis and sticker collections on social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Wechat and Kakaotalk. Personally, I am also in favor of your opinion that using emojis and stickers is useful for expressing our emotions and feelings while chatting with others. Although my parents are quite old, they also prefer using cute stickers to greet and say ‘Thank you!’ or ‘Good night!’. In my home country – Vietnam, mixing languages is also a controversial issue. Some Vietnamese young people, especially teenagers often mix Vietnamese with English on their public posts or when chatting with friends. Some even use swear words or slang publicly. I think that it is understandable for them to do so when chatting with their peers because some English words are popularly used among them. However, on public posts, it is better to choose and use language appropriately because there are many different kinds of readers at different ages. The way you use language to express your opinions on social media also shows how polite and knowledgable you are.
Thank you, Dung, for explaining different registers so well!
Hi Haein,
Thank you for telling us about how using acronyms broadens generation gaps among Korean. It instantly triggers my curiosity about this phenomenon in the Vietnamese context.
The use of abbreviations has been ubiquitous among youngsters in Vietnam due to its fun and time-efficient aspects. This oftentimes leads to confusion as these text acronyms are hard to decode, especially with parents and older generations. Some incomprehensible acronyms even appear in school settings, particularly in literature assignments. To my surprise, academics and local authorities do not perceive it as a problem. They see this trend as inevitable in today’s ever-changing society and as an indication of creativity rather than an alarming concern. They vaguely give a suggestion that youngsters should restrict acronym use to informal contexts only.
This gives rise to a concern that the young’s exploitation of Internet language and abbreviations in both their mother tongue and English in communication would be neglected. Consequently, this leads to hampered clarity, limited vocabulary and poor reasoning skills in the long run.
Thanks, Quynh! A bit different but acronyms are often used in technical jargon and serve to build solidarity with an in-group while excluding out-groups. Do you think the same dynamic plays into social media acronyms, too?
In our daily lives, we often communicate in Mandarin, and this is a default way of communication. In today’s social media (e.g. WeChat), people, especially young people, are increasingly using emojis to communicate. These emojis can be a good way to express people’s emotions and attitudes, and they are also a simple and quick way to express themselves. But for middle-aged and older people, whose social media is still predominantly in text form. I often look at forums where people talk about what’s going on right now or about politics. But if you speak too sensitively, things could go in a bad direction.
The ‘debate’ over Mandarin and regional dialects never stops. From a developmental point of view, multilingualism is the future, not to mention a branch of one language.
Thank you, Dung! I’m glad you mention language aesthetics. Agree that linguistic beauty matters 😊
Thanks for the article!
In the digital era, we are not only seeing communication being changed but also the ways in which we interpret messages. There are now various ways to identify language patterns and emotions such as emojis. There are many slang words and phrases that have been created through online platforms, using English as an example it can be seen through communication such as ‘lol’, ‘rofl’, ‘gtg’, ‘hey xx’ and so on. I am learning Spanish at the moment and I have noticed even in Spanish that they use shortcuts such as ‘por q’ or porque.
It’s interesting to study one day if minority languages can survive through the usage of social media or not (with or without politcal influence). I think it would be great to observe this through stats eg. preferred language on app and then use data to see progressional change. Maybe there would be a divide between how people write or express phrases in their language.
Thanks, Ian! Like your research suggestion: social media offer not only new ways of communicating but also new ways of researching languages.
From my point of view, people use social media for different purposes and language choices on social media are different among people. I often use Facebook to keep in touch with my family and friends, update information and express my personal opinions. However, there are some differences in language choice when I do different kinds of things. When I was young, I was quite influenced by Vietnamese teen codes. Vietnamese teen codes are a combination of letters and numbers which creates words that have the same meaning as Vietnamese national language. For example, to say ‘I don’t know’ in English, Vietnamese teenagers often write ‘T0j h0k bjt’ instead of ‘Tôi không biết’. Because I often used teen codes during high school days, therefore, till now, it still affects my language choice when chatting with my friends via Facebook. However, when I post something publicly on my personal Facebook page, I am always careful in choosing language because I am aware that it can be read by anyone. Besides, they may also be judged by others. Therefore, I often use Vietnamese standard national language and never use swear words or slang. Recently, language use on social media is a hot topic in Vietnam. Some people think that people have freedom of speech so they can use any words or languages that they want, whereas some believe that people should be careful when using language. Personally, I think it is better to avoid bad words on social media, especially when using Vietnamese, because it contributes to protecting the beauty of my home country’s language.
Hi Dung,
Thank you for sharing Vietnamese and your social media language use.
I agree with that the use of language has been changed among young people, and it affects the language choices in social media and even everyday life. In particular, the use of a combination of letters and numbers, called Vietnamese teen codes, is an interesting linguistic use. It is similar to how the abbreviations are used in Korea, my home country, at some points. For example, using the word ‘bjt’ instead of ‘biết’ to say ‘know’ that you mentioned. The Korean has also been influenced by the teenagers’ linguistic culture. Abbreviation is a typical language issue in Korea, such as using ‘혼밥’ instead of ‘혼자 밥 먹기’ which means having a meal alone. It has affected our informal conversation and even formal speech at school or university. It has already been adopted as a habit and trend by many Koreans. For this reason, I’m concerned about losing our original Korean language and abandoning some of our national Korean language. I believe that the form and use of language will be constantly changed by us as a result of the rapid digital transformation. Therefore, we need to consciously be aware of using our national language in order to preserve our own language and culture.
I believe that social media platforms are an excellent venue for language exchange. It’s easy to find groups that speak more than one language for different reasons, such as to learn and share cultures.
People nowadays seem to be very comfortable mixing languages. They tend to mix specialised terminology as well as everyday words. However, there are still controversies in Vietnam about the problem of language mixing. Many people believe that combining languages erodes Vietnamese purity. Indeed, many words in Vietnamese have been borrowed from English, French, and Chinese for a long time. The current language mixing has little impact on the Vietnamese position because it happens in casual conversation and among a small percentage of the population.
I frequently employ a combination of English and Vietnamese because I believe many words lose nuance and part of their meaning when translated into Vietnamese. Of course, it depends on the person I speak with to decide which language to employ. With my friends, I mostly use mixed languages. Some of them are not fluent in English but are still comfortable using mixed languages are among them, because most of the words we use are relatively prevalent on social media.
Thanks, Kat! Maybe you should do a research project about how your language mixing changing in different contexts, with different people, in different media, etc 🙂
I agree that younger generations (Millennials, Gen Z, and the kids’ whose generation hasn’t been named yet) seem overall to be more comfortable language mixing, and I think that this could be because those generations have been doing it from such young ages through social media. Do you feel that it is mostly older generations of Vietnamese people that seem less comfortable language mixing? Similarly, I’ve noticed that younger people in the US seem more ready to mix English and Spanish in everyday life and certainly on social media, but much less so for older people (whose L1 is English). I wonder if this is not so much a “new” phenomenon as it is just an accelerated one through the advent of the digital age. After all, language mixing has been around as long as language has, but now it can happen faster than ever before.
Thank you, Brynn. You are correct that mixed language usage is more widespread among young people. I agree that the development of social media platforms has aided the phenomenon of language mixing. Mixed-use could be affected by social networking trends that start in a language other than the user’s own and that young people tend to quickly adopt without translating into their own.
In Vietnam, the older generation indeed opposes the mixing of languages because they believe it degrades the value and elegance of the Vietnamese language. They are concerned that English may replace Vietnamese, which seems improbable. Nonetheless, there is a group of young people who oppose language mixing. I am curious as to why they do not support this. However, I believe it is somehow due to regional cultural influences. There are many objections from the youth of northern Vietnam, where people might be more conservative and uphold national cultural values.
It is interesting to understand more about how social media can somehow affect the purity of language in a country. In the current entertainment industry in Vietnam, artists usually advertise their products on social media where their international fans and other international people can easily approach them. I notice that it is a trend that many Vietnamese artists tend to have their stage names in English, create English song names, and their lyrics are heavily bilingual (mixed between Vietnamese and English). This sparks some debates about the purity of the Vietnamese language stating that the standard Vietnamese language is being affected by these trends as the younger generation would prefer to use the “mixed language”. However, Vietnamese was historically written using Chinese characters, and later because the French colonised Vietnam, this led to the official adoption of the Vietnamese alphabet which is based on Latin script. Therefore, we have used many English/French-borrowed words since then. In English, this is referred to as a cognate (a term taken from another language that has the same sounds but has been modified to the alphabet of the new language). Also, many borrowed terms from many nations that have affected Vietnamese culture throughout its history such as Chinese, English, and French are included in the Vietnamese vocabulary. Therefore, I think those are what shaped Vietnamese culture and made it unique. So what the Vietnamese artists are trying to do is simply to promote local and regional values of Vietnamese into their products and establish their identities internationally.
Thanks, Minnie! Language mixing in pop culture is really fascinating. In my earlier research about multilingualism in advertising, I found that English is used to index modernity and globalism while the national language is used to index patriotism etc. Does that sound right for English-Vietnamese use on social media, too?
Piller, Ingrid. (2001). Identity constructions in multilingual advertising. Language in Society, 30(2), 153-186.
How interesting, Ingrid! Indeed, national language is a clear indicator that expresses the national identity of a country. It is also a component of a person’s and a nation’s heritage, so that might be why it can be used to indicate patriotism, is it? In addition to the English-Vietnamese use on social media, to the best of my knowledge, I believe that in Vietnam, most English-learner students are using social media-based platforms to communicate and gather information, maintain and expand friendships, and express their identities. I think this type of textual practice supports language learning development, and it can also be seen as out-of-school literacy practices.
It is probably impossible to say that any existing language is a pure language. It is not only because the long history of how each language was transformed or adapted but also because the world population is less likely be monolingual speakers, language(s) is inevitably interfered and transformed. When two languages, including cultures, crash or integrate, there will be following impact, however, it is very unpleasant that Mongolians have to fight for their language existence.
For my social media use, I mainly used Facebook and normally write in either Thai or English depending on the target audience (either my Thai friends and family, or my host family and friends in the U.S) as well as my mood. I usually write in English when I post about international news, memes or topics that would be too cliche to write in Thai. For Thai-written post, it is usually related to jokes and political sarcasm.
Regarding language debate that I have notice is the use of Thai karaoke. In this case it refers to a situation where Thai language is spelled out using English alphabet (similar to Pinyin in Chinese). It was commonly practiced by Thai speakers who are competent in English. For example, instead of typing สวัสดีค่ะ (meaning Hello in Thai), they type Sa-was-dee-ka. There has been a debate over the appropriateness of this trend, and its potential to underpin the correct way of writing Thai.
Another problem from typing Thai karaoke is the Thai karaoke sometimes is consciously or unconsciously mixed with English language use in professional workplace, creating grammatical errors , confusion and unprofessional performance. For more story regarding the Thai karaoke : https://coconuts.co/bangkok/features/thinglish-professional-thais-still-use-ka-krub-speaking-english/
Thanks, Randomcastmember! Are there also technical reasons for typing Thai in the Latin alphabet? I’m asking because word processors used to be much more powerful with Latin until very recently and some scripts still have poor word processing technologies. Is that an issue with Thai, or not at all?
Hi Randomcastmember! Interestingly, I’m doing the same as you in social media use. I will probably be sharing my everyday happy stories in Vietnamese. However, when it comes to emotional or sensitive topics such as sharing my thoughts on how I feel when moving far away, studying abroad, or missing my home country, I will definitely be writing in English. This is because I feel more comfortable expressing my thoughts in English, and it helps me distance myself from issues I prefer not to directly talk about in my first language.
It is amazing to see how a community works together in a well-organized way to preserve their traditions and cultures under government interference. As a relative minority language in China, Cantonese is mainly spoken by people from Hong Kong, Macau and the Guangdong province. I still remember how one day I noticed my Guangzhou classmates used “讀課本” (a more formal written form for Cantonese speakers from Hong Kong and Macau) instead of “睇書” (a spoken vernacular for us) to refer to “reading books” during our conversation. By realizing how an accent or a language can reveal the ethnic and social background of a person, I think they are literally one of the essential qualities that constitute the uniqueness of a person’s cultural identity, and that it will be great and fun to respect and reserve such diversity of variations in a language.
Regarding the purism of the Mongolian language, I noticed a similar trend and orientation of Hong Kongers in a local forum. When China is purposely replacing Cantonese-instructed teaching with Mandarin, it is seen by the locals as an attempt to erase the Cantonese culture. Net users of the forum will despise those users who used Mandarin vernaculars and network language, and those words will then be corrected and replaced with more native and signature forms.
Thank you, Hakunamata! Fascinating that similar discussions about linguistic purism are happening in Cantonese. Linguistic purism is one of the “safest” (but maybe also least effective?) ways to show resistance …
This article clearly tells us that speaking a language is a political act. Language is a means where the new ideology comes in. When a language is spoken by more and more people in the world, it will be easier to communicate, to do a trade, to cooperate, to influence, or even to control one another. Creating a digital platform for speakers of a particular language, such as Bainu, is a part of accelerating the purification of a language and filtering other languages or ideologies to intrude in. Further, it will drive the local digital economy and assists the speakers to strengthen their position in the political arena.
There are some countries that banned or required their citizens to pay for VPNs to access Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc. They prefer to use their own social media platforms to maintain their language, culture, national economy, and political security.
This article also sparks questions, like can a language be damaged? Is language contact or external influences really bad? Is there any pure language left, 100% cognate, without any words borrowed from any other languages? And since we are talking about a minority language, how do we have to teach a global language like English and at the same time encourage students to be proud of speaking their local tongues?
Parting from the realization and those questions above, I love how the map visually assists the Mongol people to understand the unique diversity of their language.
Thanks, Ziadah! One thing is for sure: there is no pure language!
I appreciate how social media, without geographical barriers, gives many interesting opportunities to experience different languages and dialects. It’s a shame that in Mongolia, discussing contrasting aspects of language seems to be not just an act of curiosity, but a necessary effort to maintain language against opposing forces.
For my social media use, I regularly message friends privately, view public posts to keep up to date with information, and occasionally make a post of my own. Depending on my mood or who I am messaging (or the expected audience of a post), I usually use English, Japanese, or mixtures of both. When I make a public post in both Japanese and English, I normally translate it, but not directly. Consequently, each language segment has a slightly different tone, or jokes and puns that may not be possible in the other language, as I try to say what would come naturally to me if I were just thinking in that language. My Japanese posts are slightly more polite (especially when Japanese has more levels of formality than English), though as they’re intended for friends, and I still want to sound like me, I do still lean towards the casual side.
Thanks, Emily! How we take on different identities in our different languages is an endlessly fascinating topic! Glad you’ve figured out a way to sound like yourself in Japanese 🙂
When I scroll through social media, I often come across non-native English speakers claiming that “I sincerely apologize for any grammatical mistakes I might have made as English is not my first language”. The more I think about the reasons why they feel the need to apologize, the more I realise that there is heavy stigmatization toward “non-standard English” in society, and that the idea of formal English is significantly favourable, particularly in non-native speakers’ mindsets. This phenomenon might result from the process of purifying English due to the rising of a variety of Englishes, which is evident through several societal issues, such as classes that train native-like accents, the IELTS test that standardises British English, or the Speak Good English Movement (SGEM) in Singapore.
Particularly with SGEM, both Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and the campaign encourage Singaporeans to speak “good English” instead of their “broken and unintelligible Singlish”, thus diminishing the cultural significance of Singlish, creating linguistic anxiety, and promoting the privileges of standard English users. Furthermore, the issue of “standard” or “purified” English perpetuates discrimination and abusiveness of human rights when people use languages as a means to exclude non-standard English speakers in certain situations.
Thank you, brownies, for reflecting on how second language speakers can be shamed into a linguistic inferiority complex. We ran a series on “language shaming” here on Language on the Move some time ago: https://www.languageonthemove.com/tag/language-shaming/
Hi Brownies
I do notice a lot of those apology comments too; especially on YouTube. How YouTube is different from other social media is “common interest”, we search for videos that we are interested in and we can all comment on each other’s videos, regardless of knowing the other users or not. At the same time, English is also the “lingua franca” (a language or dialect systematically used to make communication possible between groups of people who do not share a native language or dialect). That is why non-native speakers may feel that they are obligated to comment in English in order to share thoughts with others. Hence, these raise issues such as fear of making errors or being criticised by other users.
After reading your comments about SGEM in Singapore, I think that it was quite similar to Hong Kong since the British colonisation. The British manifested its importance for international trade, business and social wellbeing and therefore they proposed children to learn English at the beginning of preschool age. Which can also cause linguistic anxiety to certain groups of people (e.g. people who are not good at learning a second language; people with dyslexia).
Hi Sharkie, thank you for your comment and for pointing out the reality that many non-native English speakers feel the need to communicate in perfect English on social media. It truly shows the power of both the language and the countries who have ownership over it, which might lead to issues such as entitlement and bullying. There have been many cases where non-native speakers are told to “speak English” or “go back to where you’re from” simply because they are living in an English speaking countries but have low level of proficiency. Another example I saw was that an American artist on social media mocked a comment praising their art (but the comment was entirely in Spanish) by saying that “if you’re going to comment, write it in the language that I can understand”. It is heartbreaking to see how languages – a means of communicating and connecting – are being used as a method to discriminate people and parade power and privileges.
And yes I agree with your second point. A way for colonizers to have absolute control over the people is to take away their unique languages and impose their languages and literacies on them (and until this day, this method is still prevalent, as shown in SGEM). The power of languages is undoubtedly mighty!
Thank you, Brownies! Your comment reminds me of Mahatma Gandhi’s contention that “To give millions a knowledge of English is to enslave them.” … he went on to explain that English (in India; but applies in many places) is a double-edged sword that enables both control and liberation…
Hi Ingrid, thank you for your comment! Yes the quote got me thinking a lot too. One one side having English is a valuable asset that can help you access education, employment, being able to communicate with more communities and spread your voices across the world (through banners, protesting signs and so on). Having English means being free, less constricted! But on the other side it’s a tool for the powerful groups to oppress certain communities (immigrants, for example). It’s a really interesting thing to consider!
I have never thought about the use of the Arabic language on social media, but this article raised my awareness to an important point. Standard Arabic is the official language of 23 Arab countries, and it is the only form used in writing. Social media users transcribe their classical Arabic (spoken varieties) instead of using the standard written form. They also use the Latin alphabets for transcription, and they replace the Arabic letters (vowels and consonants) that do not exist in English with numbers. Consequently, if you are an Arabic learner who is not familiar with any dialect, you would not be able to understand the written form on social media. However, when it comes to religion-related discussions and topics Arabic speakers put their dialects aside and turn back to the standard form of the language. This link between the religion and the language shows how many languages survive with the religions.
Thank you, WAA! Arabic on social media is such a fascinating topic! I’m wondering whether the lack of standardization on social media will mean that Arabic will break apart into different languages in the future? (like Latin broke apart into French, Spanish, Italian, etc.)
I hope that classical Arabic ( the language of the Quran) doesn’t change because if Arabic breaks apart in many child languages which would be derived from main Arabic, there is a possibility to perceive some changes in the Holy Scripture as well. Doesn’t matter if the changes are very minor, Muslims are very strict about maintaining the ancient form, both in memorization of the Scripture and in printing the Holy book. I am not quite sure if the revolution of the social media’s Arabic language would have a negative impact on religious matters, for example, the changing of the Holy Book (never mind, we are even scared to think of it!). Nonetheless, we must abide by the rule and code of conduct under this circumstance. There are many evidences, can be found in daily blogs and posts in Facebook that some specific written copies of Quran from different editing companies are fake and full of mistakes. who knows what misery comes in which condition! Apart from the religious fact, I agree that there are many dialects of modern spoken Arabic. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Modern Written Arabic (MWA) are mostly used in Literature, official academe, press and media where these aren’t spoken as first language. The spoken language is the language that we use in text messages, voicemails, or in any informal social contexts. Particularly, MSA and MWA are distinct from the various vernacular Arabic. Therefore, in social media, Arabs don’t use standard Arabic. However, I reckon that Arabic keyboard is not set in ancient form. It is another vernacular spoken language, that has written version.
Thank you so much professor Ingrid and Waa for bringing up this aspect in our fun study.
It’s interesting that this is an example of a relatively small language (google tells me there are 8.3 million speakers of Mongolian) trying to hold on to itself in the face of an “invading” dominant language and realising that through insistence on linguistic “purity” – meanwhile, I see that happening in the juggernaut that is English as well. Even though English has 1.5 billion speakers and seems to be in no danger of dying out any time soon, many English speakers – from professional linguistic pedants to average joes – reject the concept of language mixing in order to maintain a “pure” English. This can be seen everywhere from English-only movements throughout the English speaking world to an English speaker’s critique of another English speaker’s accent. It seems understandable that Mongolian speakers would feel the linguistic walls closing in around them, but why English speakers? I think we need to ask ourselves what English speakers are so afraid will happen if a “pure” English isn’t maintained.
Thanks, Brynn! You raise an interesting point about purism in English – maybe a response against globalization and migration? Change can be scary and language is often a pretext for other worries. For instance, debates about linguistic purity are sometimes about race; and people who would never openly argue for ideas like racial purity can feel comfortable arguing for linguistic purity … of course, as we know from the history of English (and every other language), it’s a pipe dream …
I absolutely agree! It seems that cloaking concerns about race in concerns about language functions as a more “socially acceptable” bias.
For Cantonese speakers like myself, normally we would use spoken vernacular Chinese for daily conversations. In terms of language choices in social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp or WeChat, I noticed two interesting circumstances. The first circumstance is that most people would use written vernacular Chinese and Emojis for communication with family, friends or acquaintances, while Classical Chinese would normally be used for work purposes, such as texting a supervisor or writing an email for applying for a job. The second circumstance is that when people get older and more mature, the temptation of using written vernacular Chinese and Emojis decreases overtime. However, the second phenomenon only applies for a certain group of people, while the others would continue using written vernacular Chinese and Emojis on social media.
Speaking of Cantonese language debates on social media, perhaps it would be the same as spoken Cantonese from different areas. For instance, Hong Kong and Macau, there are different ways of saying eraser. In Hong Kong, people would say ‘擦膠’ where as people in Macau would reverse the two characters around ‘膠擦’. That doesn’t change the meaning but people could definitely tell whether you come from Hong Kong or Macau.
Hi Sharkie, thank you for sharing.
Similar to Thai language, informal language (less strict on grammatical correctness), emoji, internet slangs are mostly used with in social medias and chatting platforms, especially with children, teenagers and young adult while formal language and much attention to grammatical correctness are used with adults, older people or even those familiarized with professional writing, such as email. Taking my dad ,for example. He is 61 years old and used to be a government officers. We texted on chatting app especially when I am abroad. I found out that he use Thai written language very formally ( which is different than his spoken language). The night before I was also talking to my friend and read my dad’s text to her, she laughed so hard because the language was similar to those found in government official document. My assumption is that my father has no social media influence on his language use because he does not use other social media platforms like Facebook. On the other hand, my mother uses teenager’s terms and slang in a chat, potentially because she has language influence from often browsing on Facebook.
Thanks, Randomcastmember. I feel sorry for your dad that he was ridiculed. Digital communication is somewhere between written and spoken language; it seems closer to written language when you first encounter it because it’s visual – and that would explain your dad’s style; but the functions are more similar to spoken language and that explains the informal style of frequent users …
Congratulations on publishing your new research Gegentuul and Cholmon! You’ve demonstrated so clearly the power of the written language as a channel through which to create and perpetuate discourse, but also the limitations created by some of the ideologies connected with it: whole groups can be stigmatized, or completely excluded. A fascinating read!!
Thanks Laura!