Polylanguaging in Monolingual Cultures

Written for Seminar on Monolingualism With Thomas Leddy-Cecere

The expectation in a perceived monolingual society is that most conversations will be held in that one shared language. In practice, this is far from the truth. Walking down the halls of an average high school in the San Francisco Bay Area, regardless of the demographics, one can expect to hear a mix of English, Spanish and other languages.

This is in great part due to the Internet. Often called “The Information Age,” the 21st Century has given people of all ages access to far off lands, cultures and people. From educational apps like Duolingo, to cross-cultural memes, to international friends met online, teenagers on the Internet are consistently being exposed to more languages than their predecessors. Words from other languages and cultures are often “borrowed” in slang. For example in fall of 2019, the phrase “sco pa tu manaa” went viral with the meaning “What does this make you think of.” This phrase has been credited to Hawaiian slang, Zambian, and Gujarati. According to multiple users on Urban Dictionary, the phrase originated with Ghanaian artist Patapaa in the song Kawoula Biov with Daavi Neba. In the song, “sco pa tu manaa” was intended as gibberish, but Ghanaians on the internet began to use it to ask for opinions on various topics. Suddenly, Ghanaian gibberish was all over the internet.

However, this borrowing is much older than the internet, although it has been aided by the connection it provides. French phrases plague the English language. From ‘rendezvous’ to ‘je ne sais quoi,’ French is frequently used in English to express ideas just as easily said in English. These phrases are more often used by higher class and higher educated individuals. While the meaning of the phrase isn’t altered much, it holds an altered cultural significance.

Often, microslang (collections of idioms, phrases and words used by a small group of people) can also include ‘borrowed’ phrases from other languages. In my experience in high school, following the popularity of the use of the word “L” (pronounced ell) to mean ‘take a loss,’ my group of friends began saying the letter ‘L’ in Spanish rather than English to express sarcastic or ironic losses. In fact, the use of Spanish, especially with a heavy American accent, was often used to express sarcasm or insincerity among my peers. The Spanish “L” shifted to sounding more like “LA” than the correct Spanish pronunciation, “elleh,” over time. On the other hand, Serbian was used to express more genuine positive emotion, copying phrases from one friend’s mother, without fully knowing the meaning and butchering the pronunciation. Another language often borrowed from or used was ASL. Signed words or phrases were secrets or otherwise inappropriate for the setting. Using sign language to express these thoughts demonstrated the signer’s knowledge of the risqué or private nature of the statement, but still communicated the idea. Despite the frequent practice of three other languages, if you asked any of the teenagers, they’d say they only use English outside of language classes, making them ideologically monolingual.

Use of a language outside the common one, even with a lack of fluency, can be used to express mood or intent in a given space or community. When borrowed, words and phrases often lose their original meaning, taking on a different significance in the new community.