Number of Posts: 4
Posts 1 - 4
Wir wollen zeigen, dass wir gut Englisch können
(We want to show that we are good at English)
Newspaper | 20 Minuten
Date | 29.4.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | anglicisms, code-switching, emojis, texting, WhatsApp, youth
Summary | Young people increasingly communicate in English with each other (especially digitally). This has become a way to imitate their idols, who are largely English-speakers, and to exclude adults from their communicative code. Linguists are delighted by young people's creativity; they use different languages and emojis available to them even though their competence may not be perfect.
Image Description | Series of four screenshots of WhatsAspp conversations showing English/Swiss-German code-switching.
Image Tags | WhatsApp
A table tout le monde!
(Dinner time everybody!)
Newspaper | Le Matin Dimanche
Date | 30.3.2014
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | emojis, texting, WhatsApp, youth
Summary | The author talks about her experiences at home; she created a dinner schedule so that her kids would notify her of whether or not they would be home for dinner. But the kids would never notify her in advance; they would text her at 19:00 saying they would not come home. Thus, one of the kids created a WhatsApp group for the family. It's fun! There are "ribs emojis" and "spaghetti emojis". They laugh a lot on WhatsApp, so she doesn't even realize that she is eating dinner by herself.
Image Description | Photograph of the author of the article.
“Pic speech”: le parler ado
(“Pic speech": teen talk)
Newspaper | La Tribune de Genève
Date | 30.5.2015
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | emojis, Facebook, language threat, selfie, Snapchat, social media, WhatsApp, youth
Summary | Nowadays teenagers mostly express themselves through visual modes (e.g. Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Snapchat) and thus create their own language: “pic speech”. Images do not necessarily replace words; young people claim that words are still important since they contextualize images. Regarding emojis, teenagers use them for their “affective” purpose. This new language is a way for youth to become autonomous and emancipate themselves.
Image Description | Series of screenshots of different teenagers' snaps (selfie + Face Paint feature).
Image Tags | male(s), Snapchat
Antiquiert chatten
(An antiquated chat)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 11.11.2015
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | emojis, school, WhatsApp, youth
Summary | Two Swiss high school students adapted the antique myth of Aeneas and Dido into a WhatsApp chat. A school assignment for their Latin class asked students to adapt ancient stories into other media. The two students reinterpreted the storyline as a WhatsApp chat between Dido and Aeneas in Latin with a lot of dramatic language (e.g. indicate shouting with all capital letters or word length with letter repetitions, and communicate emotions with emojis).
Image Description | Screenshot of a WhatsApp chat in Latin with words, emojis, and images.
Image Tags | emojis, WhatsApp
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