Mocking fakeness
Abstract Phonetic resources, like dialects and accents, are used in ethnic humour to build up a recognisable character that pokes fun at the stereotypes associated with a particular identity, sometimes with critical and political undertones. In this article, we examine the manipulation of one such r...
Published in: | Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) |
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Language: | English |
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John Benjamins Publishing Company
2022
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/prag.27.4.02hal http://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/prag.27.4.02hal.pdf |
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crjohnbenjaminsp:10.1075/prag.27.4.02hal 2024-06-09T07:49:23+00:00 Mocking fakeness Performance, phonetic aspiration and ethnic humour Halonen, Mia Pietikäinen, Sari 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/prag.27.4.02hal http://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/prag.27.4.02hal.pdf en eng John Benjamins Publishing Company http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) Pragmatics / Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) Pragmatics page 507-528 ISSN 1018-2101 2406-4238 journal-article 2022 crjohnbenjaminsp https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.27.4.02hal 2024-05-15T13:26:50Z Abstract Phonetic resources, like dialects and accents, are used in ethnic humour to build up a recognisable character that pokes fun at the stereotypes associated with a particular identity, sometimes with critical and political undertones. In this article, we examine the manipulation of one such resource, aspiration, used in performing and mocking one such clichéd character, called the fake Sámi. This character has a contested history in Finnish tourism and marketing practices, and is embedded in a long-standing debate about who can use emblems of Sámi identity for economic purposes. Adopting a sociophonetic language regard and folk linguistics approaches ( Preston 2010 Niedzielski & Preston 2003 ) we explore how “fakeness” is constructed phonetically by the actors performing “Fake Sámi” in an indigenous Sámi television comedy show during a period of intense political debate in Finland over the legal definition of the category of indigenous Sámi. By analysing the use of hyperbolic aspiration of a prominent feature of Lappish Finnish dialect, the non-initial syllable /h/-sound, we show how the fakeness is performed by evoking linguistic stereotypes of a Finnish Lappish dialect and a Finnish English accent by a deliberate misuse of aspiration: aspirating when standard phonemes in speech should not be aspirated and not aspirating when phonemes should be aspirated. We argue that this kind of deliberate ambivalence and misuse of phonetic resources is a phonetic resource for reflexive postmodern identity performances. Article in Journal/Newspaper Sámi John Benjamins Publishing Company Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) 27 4 507 528 |
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Open Polar |
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John Benjamins Publishing Company |
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crjohnbenjaminsp |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Phonetic resources, like dialects and accents, are used in ethnic humour to build up a recognisable character that pokes fun at the stereotypes associated with a particular identity, sometimes with critical and political undertones. In this article, we examine the manipulation of one such resource, aspiration, used in performing and mocking one such clichéd character, called the fake Sámi. This character has a contested history in Finnish tourism and marketing practices, and is embedded in a long-standing debate about who can use emblems of Sámi identity for economic purposes. Adopting a sociophonetic language regard and folk linguistics approaches ( Preston 2010 Niedzielski & Preston 2003 ) we explore how “fakeness” is constructed phonetically by the actors performing “Fake Sámi” in an indigenous Sámi television comedy show during a period of intense political debate in Finland over the legal definition of the category of indigenous Sámi. By analysing the use of hyperbolic aspiration of a prominent feature of Lappish Finnish dialect, the non-initial syllable /h/-sound, we show how the fakeness is performed by evoking linguistic stereotypes of a Finnish Lappish dialect and a Finnish English accent by a deliberate misuse of aspiration: aspirating when standard phonemes in speech should not be aspirated and not aspirating when phonemes should be aspirated. We argue that this kind of deliberate ambivalence and misuse of phonetic resources is a phonetic resource for reflexive postmodern identity performances. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Halonen, Mia Pietikäinen, Sari |
spellingShingle |
Halonen, Mia Pietikäinen, Sari Mocking fakeness |
author_facet |
Halonen, Mia Pietikäinen, Sari |
author_sort |
Halonen, Mia |
title |
Mocking fakeness |
title_short |
Mocking fakeness |
title_full |
Mocking fakeness |
title_fullStr |
Mocking fakeness |
title_full_unstemmed |
Mocking fakeness |
title_sort |
mocking fakeness |
publisher |
John Benjamins Publishing Company |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/prag.27.4.02hal http://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/prag.27.4.02hal.pdf |
genre |
Sámi |
genre_facet |
Sámi |
op_source |
Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) Pragmatics / Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) Pragmatics page 507-528 ISSN 1018-2101 2406-4238 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.27.4.02hal |
container_title |
Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) |
container_volume |
27 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
507 |
op_container_end_page |
528 |
_version_ |
1801381900198084608 |