The Multilingual Internet: Language, Culture, and Communication Online
Brenda Danet and Susan C. Herring
Abstract
Although English is the de facto lingua franca of the Internet, most Internet users are not native speakers of English. Two-thirds of the one billion users now online communicate in other languages, in non-native English, or both. Yet the English-based scholarly literature on computer-mediated communication (CMC) does not reflect this diversity. This book analyzes text-based CMC in multiple languages other than native English. Its eighteen chapters, most of them case studies focusing on a particular language or multilingual situation, address a range of topics: writing systems and the Internet ... More
Although English is the de facto lingua franca of the Internet, most Internet users are not native speakers of English. Two-thirds of the one billion users now online communicate in other languages, in non-native English, or both. Yet the English-based scholarly literature on computer-mediated communication (CMC) does not reflect this diversity. This book analyzes text-based CMC in multiple languages other than native English. Its eighteen chapters, most of them case studies focusing on a particular language or multilingual situation, address a range of topics: writing systems and the Internet; linguistic and discourse features of local language use online; gender, language, and culture online; language choice and code switching; and linguistic diversity on the Internet, currently and projected into the future. Secondary themes addressed include playfulness and creativity in CMC; romanization of languages ordinarily written in other scripts; and comparison of CMC-specific features in various languages. The languages described include French, Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Spanish, Catalan, Japanese, Thai, Portuguese, and non-native Englishes. A wide range of CMC modes is covered, from personal email, discussion lists, and text messaging on mobile phones (asynchronous) to instant messaging, ICQ, and graphical chat (synchronous) — as used by teenagers, university students and other young people, housewives, and professionals. The book includes an introduction with numerous references.
Keywords:
CMC features,
code switching,
culture,
gender,
language choice,
lingua franca,
linguistic diversity,
non-native English,
playfulness,
writing systems
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2007 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780195304794 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2007 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195304794.001.0001 |