The use of Citétaal among adolescents in Limburg: the role of space appropriation in language variation and change

Abstract

The term Citetaal was originally used to refer to the language spoken by Italian immigrants in the Eastern part of Flanders (Limburg) and diffused in the former ghettoised mining areas (the cite). It is a melting pot language, based on Dutch but with a high amount of code mixture from immigrant languages, mostly Italian and Turkish. Recently, its use seems to be spreading among speakers in Limburg and particularly in the area of Genk, which is the city with the highest concentration of speakers with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. In this paper, we investigate to what extent and in what contexts Citetaal is currently used by adolescents in Limburg by means of a quantitative questionnaire study and qualitative analysis of focus group interviews. The quantitative results show that both speakers with immigrant and non-immigrant backgrounds use Citetaal and consider it primarily as intended for peer communication. Furthermore, the interview data suggests that Citetaal is shifting from marking ethnicity to indexing a new, localised identity of which its emergence seems to be related to the mechanism of enregisterment. Based on our findings, we conclude that the appropriation of space functions as a catalyst force for language variation and change.