Sprachliche Variation als Ausdruck soziokultureller Identität: Multiethnolekte im Gegenwartsdeutschen

Using a particular speech style or speaking a language variety such as a multi-ethnolect implies a continuous 'act of identity', i.e. a way of self-positioning through which speakers develop and consolidate a sense of belonging to a group. Starting with this assumption, this paper depicts the close correlations between linguistic variables and definition of macro-sociological categories for multilingual speakers. We will firstly focus on the main peculiarities of a new way of speaking emerging in multiethnic urban Germany (often referred to as 'Kiezdeutsch'), which combines features of a youth language with those of a contact language; then we will examine the major functions of sociolinguistic variation in social meaning construction as well as in the process of shaping one's own linguistic and cultural identity.