Books by Bettina M Migge
Cambridge, 2013
This book proposes a new methodological approach to documenting languages spoken in multilingual ... more This book proposes a new methodological approach to documenting languages spoken in multilingual and socially and linguistically heterogeneous and dynamic contexts. Tracing the investigation of one unique linguistic space, the English-lexified creole language called Takitaki in multilingual French Guiana, the book illustrates how interactional sociolinguistic, discourse analytical and quantitative sociolinguistic approaches can be fruitfully integrated with structural approaches to language in order to systematically resolve dicey but rarely theorised/discussed questions (what are the outlines of the community, who is a rightful speaker, what speech to document etc) that frequently crop up in projects of language documentation in multilingual contexts. The authors argue that comprehensively documenting complex linguistic phenomena requires taking into account the views of all local social actors (speakers, institutions, linguists, non-speakers etc), applying a range of complementary data collection and analysis methods and putting issues of ideology, variation, language contact and interaction centre stage.
Multilingualism - French Guiana - Suriname by Bettina M Migge
Cahiers des Amériques latines, 2020
Cet article vise à analyser des catégorisations de la majorité raciale dans une langue minoritair... more Cet article vise à analyser des catégorisations de la majorité raciale dans une langue minoritaire, afin de saisir ces dynamiques de racialisation depuis la perspective de personnes minorisées. Il s’agit de catégories utilisées en Guyane par des personnes businenge – des Marrons –, locuteurs des variétés de nenge. Nous étudions ainsi les désignations renvoyant à la blancheur, comme bakaa, weti et poyte, dans une perspective historique, à partir de dictionnaires anciens, puis
contemporaine, en nous appuyant sur des données collectées ethnographiquement. Puis nous analysons des interactions à l’hôpital de Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, en combinant la sociologie des rapports sociaux et des approches sociales du langage ancrées dans l’ethnographie. La distinction entre bakaa et weti permet de penser la race comme rapport de pouvoir, où disparaît l’évidence du marqueur biologique de couleur. Nommer la blancheur s’avère aussi un moyen de proposer une perspective critique de l’ordre social.
International Journal of Multilingualism, 2019
On the French Guiana-Suriname border, a hybrid space, members of the same population groups engag... more On the French Guiana-Suriname border, a hybrid space, members of the same population groups engage in circular mobility but little is known about the practices of these transnational communities. We explore how traditional emic social distinctions, modern states' language ideologies and emerging discourses in the urban context shape Maroon's practices and identities in the border zone. A survey of language repertoires and long-term ethnographic fieldwork, including recordings of situated multilingual interactions, allow us to explore people's alignment with national language ideologies and the nature of distinctive ideologies, identifications and practices that can be observed in the border zone. We show that the border zone constitutes a separate sociolinguistic area, in terms of both language use and ideologies. However, similarities do not preclude sharp differences at other levels because multiple identifications co-exist. The findings support a layered and dynamic perspective of identity and illustrate how contradictory perspectives simultaneously overlap on one or several scales.
Langues et cité, 2017
La Guyane est la seule région au monde où se côtoient des langues créoles à base française et des... more La Guyane est la seule région au monde où se côtoient des langues créoles à base française et des langues créoles à base anglaise. Parmi les créoles à base lexicale française présents en Guyane, on compte le créole guyanais, divers créoles des petites Antilles (guadeloupéen, martiniquais, saint-lucien), et le créole haïtien. Parmi les créoles à base lexicale anglaise, on trouve l'aluku, le ndyuka et le pamaka (appelés aussi nenge), le saamaka (créole anglo-portugais), le sranan tongo (la langue véhiculaire du Surinam voisin) ainsi que le créole anglais du Guyana ou Guyanese Creole. Bien que les légères différences structurelles qui existent au sein des créoles d'une même base lexicale soient souvent brandies par les locuteurs pour marquer leur appartenance à un groupe (Aluku, Ndyuka, etc.), ou leur origine régionale (Martiniquais, Guyanais, etc.), l'intercompréhension en Guyane est presque totale au sein des locuteurs de créoles français, et au sein de ceux de créoles anglais (à l'exception peut-être du saamaka, dont la mixité anglo-portugaise limite l'intercompréhension avec les autres créoles anglais). Depuis une trentaine d'années, les études sur les langues créoles font reculer les préjugés qui les réduisent au rang de langues simples, sans grammaire, avec peu de vocabulaire, même si ces idées persistent encore, parfois même au sein des populations créolophones. Aujourd'hui, on considère que ces langues sont un formidable « laboratoire » d'analyse de la faculté humaine de langage (Hagège, 1987) et qu'elles ont encore beaucoup à nous apprendre en particulier sur l'évolution des langues.
Pratiques et représentations linguistiques en Guyane : regards croisés. IRD., 2007
Léglise & Migge, 2007, « Le 'taki-taki', une langue parlée en Guyane ? fantasmes et réalités (soc... more Léglise & Migge, 2007, « Le 'taki-taki', une langue parlée en Guyane ? fantasmes et réalités (socio)linguistiques » in Léglise & Migge (coord.) Pratiques et attitudes linguistiques en Guyane : regards croisés, Paris : IRD Editions, 99-118.
Language in Society, 2006
Although it is well accepted that linguistic naming conventions provide valuable insights into th... more Although it is well accepted that linguistic naming conventions provide valuable insights into the social and linguistic perceptions of people, this aspect has not received much attention in (socio)linguistics. Studies focus on the etymology of names, details about the social and historical circumstances of their emergence, their users, and sometimes make recommendations about the appropriateness of terms. This paper departs from this tradition. Focusing on the term Takitaki in French Guiana, it shows that an analysis of the discursive uses of language names as used by all local actors provides significant insights into the social and linguistic makeup of a complex sociolinguistic situation. Descriptions of languages in such settings should be based on the varieties identified by such an analysis and on practices in a range of naturalistic interactions. Based on these analytical steps, we propose a multi-perspective approach to language documentation.
In and Out of Suriname. Language, Mobility, Identity. PP 13-57., Nov 2014
This chapter aims to take a fijirst step towards improving our understanding
of Suriname’s contem... more This chapter aims to take a fijirst step towards improving our understanding
of Suriname’s contemporary linguistic context. It is based on the results of
a recent sociolinguistic survey carried out among primary school children in
Suriname. Exploring children’s statements about their own and their families’
language practices, their language attitudes, their language learning desires
and self-assessment of their linguistic competence, we describe the contemporary
sociolinguistic situation of Suriname and identify pertinent issues for
further research.
This introductory chapter aims at re-visiting the social and linguistic context of contemporary S... more This introductory chapter aims at re-visiting the social and linguistic context of contemporary Suriname and shifting attention away from the purely historical and anthropological construction of Surinamese reality to look instead at language practices in Suriname through the lens of identity construction, mobility patterns, linguistic ideology and multilingualism. The three main themes we engage in this book, language, identity and mobility overlap in several aspects, though the link between language and social identity would likely seem the most obvious for most people.
Papers by Bettina M Migge
Exploring Language in a Multilingual Context
Routledge eBooks, Jun 27, 2023
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), May 26, 2017
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), May 26, 2017
Routledge eBooks, May 24, 2017
Routledge eBooks, May 24, 2017
Routledge eBooks, May 24, 2017
VMU Lithuanian Emigration Institute, 2008
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2010
This paper reviews and critically assesses issues that pertain to the implementation of Creole la... more This paper reviews and critically assesses issues that pertain to the implementation of Creole languages in education. We review historical, social and political issues that have hindered the introduction of most of these contact languages in the educational domain as well as the factors that have spurred the integration of some of them into education. Based on the available literature, the paper also provides an overview of current projects around the world. We critically assess the main characteristics of past and current programs and projects that seek to implement Creoles in education and propose a tentative roadmap for setting up viable educational projects. Keywords: Creoles and education; educational projects
Manchester University Press eBooks, May 16, 2016
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Books by Bettina M Migge
Multilingualism - French Guiana - Suriname by Bettina M Migge
contemporaine, en nous appuyant sur des données collectées ethnographiquement. Puis nous analysons des interactions à l’hôpital de Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, en combinant la sociologie des rapports sociaux et des approches sociales du langage ancrées dans l’ethnographie. La distinction entre bakaa et weti permet de penser la race comme rapport de pouvoir, où disparaît l’évidence du marqueur biologique de couleur. Nommer la blancheur s’avère aussi un moyen de proposer une perspective critique de l’ordre social.
of Suriname’s contemporary linguistic context. It is based on the results of
a recent sociolinguistic survey carried out among primary school children in
Suriname. Exploring children’s statements about their own and their families’
language practices, their language attitudes, their language learning desires
and self-assessment of their linguistic competence, we describe the contemporary
sociolinguistic situation of Suriname and identify pertinent issues for
further research.
Papers by Bettina M Migge
contemporaine, en nous appuyant sur des données collectées ethnographiquement. Puis nous analysons des interactions à l’hôpital de Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, en combinant la sociologie des rapports sociaux et des approches sociales du langage ancrées dans l’ethnographie. La distinction entre bakaa et weti permet de penser la race comme rapport de pouvoir, où disparaît l’évidence du marqueur biologique de couleur. Nommer la blancheur s’avère aussi un moyen de proposer une perspective critique de l’ordre social.
of Suriname’s contemporary linguistic context. It is based on the results of
a recent sociolinguistic survey carried out among primary school children in
Suriname. Exploring children’s statements about their own and their families’
language practices, their language attitudes, their language learning desires
and self-assessment of their linguistic competence, we describe the contemporary
sociolinguistic situation of Suriname and identify pertinent issues for
further research.
The papers in this special issue explore variation in a range of Creoles and represent different approaches to researching variation. Two of the papers follow a typical quantitative sociolinguistic approach. They focus on one linguistic feature, or variable, and correlate its distribution with independent linguistic factors (Riccelli’s paper) and with linguistic and social factors (Cardoso and Costa’s paper) to uncover the constraints that govern the distribution of that variable. Evans’ paper differs from these studies in that it investigates variation in legal translations from English to Kwéyòl. It attempts to establish the degree of pragmatic and legal equivalence in the interpretations of on sight translations of an important English legal phrase, the pre-trial right to silence or police caution, and the social factors that condition this variation. The other two papers in the special issue follow a linguistic anthropological approach to variation in that they investigate types of variable linguistic practices, rather than single variables, and speaker’s discourses about them, in order to understand how speakers conceptualize these practices (Schneider) and how these conceptualisations feed into identity formation (Jourdan & Angeli).