A Facebook Post: Identity through the Technoscape
Jenna is a friend of mine. We attended high-school together at a boarding school for troubled kids in Eagle River, Alaska. Jenna and I spent a lot of time together in high school. I can relate this post in the context of my own experience of spending time with her and learning about her culture. In ARCH (where we attended school), we lived together, ate together, and did most activities together. She told me stories about her home town in Dillingham, Alaska. She also told me many stories of what it was like growing up in the “village.” She taught me a few Central Yupik words, one of which was “Gusaqs.” In Dillingham, “Gusaq” is the local dialect of Yupik to say there is a white person. In the local dialect, by saying “Gusayagaq” Jenna explained you are saying “the white-man.” In Yupik, tiny changes to words can result in a completely different meaning of a sentence. As she is bilingual, she often plays with the forms of her words, switching between English forms and Yupik words, to play mind tricks on family and friends.
When I saw her post on, October 7 of 2018, I screenshotted it because I saw its linguistic value. I didn’t know if it was enough to do a project on, but I thought it was funny. This is because she was basically saying “oh, white people are so ridiculous” in Yup’ik. She did this by simply saying “Gusaqs” with a few emojis which conveyed her humor and cheerful disappointment to her audience. Many people responded, which in Facebook terms means her message was understood and liked. So, to ensure I would be respectful of her post and privacy, I reached out to her to make sure I could use the post. The approval screenshot and Facebook post are attached at the end of this document.
World & Internet Englishes on the Technoscape:
Language is fluid. As English emerges across contexts, culture emerges locally and globally. Researchers like Rakesh Bhatt and Arjun Appadurai show how English today is a global phenomenon, and that people should be free to use it in various settings and contexts. However, most contexts still undeniably demand standardized rules of English, yet the internet does not. The internet allows spaces to emerge where Liberal Linguistics can be freely practiced. In these internet spaces, people are free to combine and practice languages as they please.
To reiterate, English is not singular but fluid. In each context, language evolves to become a new entity as it is exposed to different environments, cultures, and contexts. Bhatt describes this notion as, “a growing consensus among scholars that there is not one English language anymore: rather there are many (McArthur, 1998; as cited in Bhatt 527). Further, this determination is explained by the fact that “[t]he field of study of World Englishes—varieties of English used in diverse sociolinguistic contexts—represents a paradigm shift in research, teaching, and application of sociolinguistic realities to the forms and functions of English” (Bhatt 527). This is to say it “rejects the dichotomy of US (native speakers) vs. THEM (nonnative speakers)” which is a fancy way of saying World Englishes (WE) from this view highlights Liberation Linguistics. This concept emphasizes that language is free to those who speak it. The concept of WE in this way is “rooted in contexts of social injustice and seeks to transform these contexts radically in the interest of the speakers of the ‘other tongue’—the nonnative speaker” (528). In short, WE accepts speakers of English, native or non-native, to verse their own form of the language with fluidity. It allows researchers to look past the dichotomy of native vs. nonnative and look to see how English is being used in various local contexts. Appaduri puts this discussion of Liberal Linguistics on the map with his piece about the WE landscape.
One benefit of taking the view of WE, is that it allows researchers to look past the crisis of standardized English to determine that globalization has opened language up in new and exciting ways. In short, it allows researchers to step out of the fear of old-language-grammar rules to watch how language freely flows in the digital age. English, some have argued, has become the lingua franca. Thus, as English has become globalized it has permeated across cultural membranes. Appaduri has describes this process in “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy.” He describes how WE flows and forms various boundaries between points of language contact and scapes. He says that we need to think of WE in the terms of the suffix “scape to indicate first of all that these are not objectively given relations which look the same from every angle of vision but rather that they are” (221) deeply contrasted in relation to one another as different landscapes. They are not just imagined communities, but communities in which WE are present.
Further, Appaduri notes how these scapes organize themselves in similar yet differing worlds. They linguistically flourish together because of globalization. Appaduri also reminds us that “the suffix scape…allows us to point to the fluid, irregular shapes of these” worlds (222). For the purpose of this paper, in that we are using a Facebook post, out of the five such scapes defined by Appaduri, Jenna’s post exists on the technoscape. Appaduri said that the technoscape was where “the global configuration, also ever fluid, of technology, and the fact that technology, both high and low, both mechanical and informational, now moves at high speeds across various kinds of previously impervious boundaries” (222). In short, Facebook could be seen as a technological scape. Facebook is a social media website which allows people to use a variety of language, in any combination, without a potential grade on their language use. People from all over the world use Facebook and it has become a landscape of its own.
Jenna used a mix of her WE (a variety from Dillingham, AK) and her native language, Yup’ik in the technoscape. The video, emoji language, Facebook sharing features, and laughing face-amount all communicate across the scape to Jenna’s audience. She uses her own combination of language practices to communicate with her audience. The caption, use of emojis, and the video itself communicated a message to her world audience. Her message transferred the digital landscape. Overall, due to this overall combination, she used the vehicle of humor to surprise her audience with a combination of WE and her native language, Yupik. There received reaction is shown by the Facebook response of six laughing faces. This is to say Jenna, by sharing her Facebook post, was traversing what Bhatt called, the dichotomy of English speaker vs. non-speaker. By combining her bilingual language practices on the digital landscape, she was able to cross boundaries of English norms without being reprimanded or culturally repressed. Interestingly enough, in what Appaduri called the technoscape, this fluid environment allowed her to share her unique bilingual cultural identity as a both a Yup’ik Eskimo and an American English speaker from Dillingham, AK. This is because she uses a specific form of the word “Gusaq” that would only be identifiable to a Yup’ik speaker from her region of Alaska and dialect of English. In this way, Jenna shows her mastery of both Yupik and English in this small Facebook post. The digital landscape offered her a safe space to show her mastery of WE and Yupik.
Translanguaging on Facebook:
A common term in composition studies which describes a bilingual speaker’s masterful ability to switch between language practices is termed, translanguaging. According to Teresa Combs, translanguaging occurs when a student who knows multiple languages can code-switch; code-mesh; show partial and full translations of material; and artfully move between their known languages within a single context (1-3). By showing such language skills, crafts a “paralinguistic and social appropriateness” of language that is akin with translanguaging (18). Combs also brings up how translanguaging is closely tied with Multilingual Negotiation. She explains that this is how a multilingual student can “coordinat[e] between [their] languages” (4). In short, translanguaging is when a bilingual, or multilingual speaker, can move between languages with seamless fluidity. On Facebook, Combs argues that the multilingual speaker feels as if they can freely negotiate their language practices without judgement because it is online (4).
In short, they can use the language liberally and are free to change, play, and construct many forms of existing language norms on Facebook. In the example of the screenshot, Jenna can be seen translanguaging as she artfully moves and negotiates between her two languages: English and Yupik. Jenna communicated across Facebook to convey a message to her audience. She was commenting on the appropriation of white culture, by using a Yupik slur. Jenna was making fun of white people with a unique mix of her native language and English. By negotiating in the online space between her two languages, she shows an artful mastery of her two tongues. Due to this fact, Jenna’s post could be seen as means of translanguaging. Jenna can be seen as participating in translanguaging in her post by commenting on an English video, with a blended Yup’ik word. The word being, Gusaqs, is neither entirely “proper Central Yup’ik” nor actually English—but rather an imperturbable mix of both languages. Also, the use of emoji(s) helps to convey the emotion in which Jenna wanted to add context to the blended English and Yupik word. This adds to the vehicle of humor which the post wishes to convey. In other words, the use of the emoji(s) strengths her multilingual negotiation as she rhetorically persuades her audience to laugh at her blended Yupik word.
According to the Central Yup’ik Handbook for Teachers, the word “Gusaqs” could be derived form of the Central Yup’ik word, “Kass'aq” historically referring to white-people. This specific word was used for the colonizer because “English speakers [had] trouble with…geminated consonants, leaving them single words like Kass'aq” meaning, "‘white person’ or Yup'ik itself” (Jacobson 12). This is because single words were easier for the white-people to pronounce. In short, Jenna’s version of the word “Gusaqs” meaning to her “white people” (see Figure 2), could have occurred from her bilingual negotiation between both Yup’ik and English. However, “Gusaqs” could also be a culturally agreed upon term in her region of Yupik. Additionally, “Gusaqs” could also be the way Jenna decided to phonetically spell Kass'aq because of her English-speaking background. This is because the English speaker will often hear the pronunciation of the “Ka” sound in Yupik as a “G” sound in English (Johnson 11). This would explain the different spelling from Jenna’s use and explanation on Facebook, to the Yupik dictionary’s definition.
Additionally, suffixes are also very important in Yupik. This brings us to the ending of Jenna’s Facebook word, Gusaqs, which adopts the predominate English plural suffix -s. However, as the Central Yupik Handbook for Teachers discuses, “the suffixes of Yupik each express an idea which requires a separate word in English—a noun, verb, adjective, or auxiliary verb… Lastly, this single Yupik word is a complete sentence, something that almost never happens in English, where a sentence must have at least a subject and verb” (Jacobson 14). This could show that Jenna’s post could be serving as a complete sentence for her English audience. However, because it is partially translated from Yup’ik to English, expressing the constant sound that an English-speaker would make of the word is almost impossible. Jenna could be negotiating between her two languages by using the complementary suffix -s from English. This would show her, and her audience, that plurality is present in the situational phrase.
To conclude, the word “Gusaq” cannot be formally found in a Yupik dictionary. However, the word Kass'aq is similarly spelled and has the same meaning to Jenna’s use of “Gusaq.” This is to say both words formally (and informally) mean white-people. Jenna possibly could have created this slang-version of the word Kass'aq over the years, by partially translating a full sentence from her native language into English. However, it could have just developed dialectally as language contact persisted between Yupik speakers and English speakers. Both versions of explanation, show that Jenna uses Facebook to negotiate between her two-known languages. In this way, Jenna shows that the online space of Facebook is safe for her to portray her Alaska Native identity with her peers.
Online Identity:
To build off the idea of “World Englishes” by Bhatt and Appadurai, Rebecca Black writes about the state of globalization in today’s world. Black surveys current psychological research which shows that globalization is changing the way young people development and define their identity. One of the key differences in psychosocial development today, is the negotiation of social roles within online communities. Black shows in her paper, “Online Fan Fictions, Global Identities, and Imagination” how the notion of globalization relates to identity formation in the new digital age. Specifically, she “uses discourse analytic methods to explore the literacy and social practices of three adolescent English language learners writing in an online fan fiction community” (397). Black uses these aforementioned “[t]heoretical constructs within globalization and literacy studies…[to] describe the influences of new media and technologies on modern configurations of imagination, identity, communication, and writing” (398). In Jenna’s small post, we can see how she navigates the space of Facebook by using her unique cultural identity as a Yupik speaker. She combines the use of English and Yupik within one word, to show her mastery of both languages. Proudly, she comments in her native tongue appropriating her culture the way she sees fit. Therefore, Jenna is using the internet to display her unique identity as a bilingual Alaska Native participant of Facebook.
Jenna’s use of the word “Gusaqs” tagged on the “White People vs. Snacks” video shows her identity as a Yupik speaker who also knows English language rules. Due to the fact that “Gusaqs,” historically is not spelt the way Jenna uses it online, through Facebook, portrays her unique identity as a bilingual speaker. She combines her native language, Yupik, and her dually learned language English to show mastery within the online landscape. The “G” in “Gusaqs” normatively would be spelt with a “K” in the region in which Jenna is from, Dillingham. However, due to Jenna’s unique identity as a bilingual speaker, she could have been combining and playing with the forms of both of her languages in the safety of her online space. Black tells us that by “examining how ELL…use new technologies to socialize” we can see how they “represent themselves” (399). Jenna, online, represents herself as bilingual to both her English and Yupik peers. She does this by using a unique combination of both of her languages: Yupik and English.
Further, Jenna represents what is important to her by showing the ridiculousness of “white people” by commenting on the video with a Yupik phrase. It shows that while she values being Alaskan Native, she also sees white people as different from her. Additionally, she values her Alaska Native language and shows her specific culture and dialect by mixing forms of Central Yupik and standardized English. According to Black, as popular culture and media become ubiquitous in many contemporary contexts, the material products of media mixes take on salient roles in youths’ daily activities and social interactions, while the symbolic or representational aspects of such mediascapes can play a significant role in shaping the social worlds and identities that youth envision for themselves and others (413). This shows how Jenna uses the internet to play with historically portrayed identity roles such as: White and Alaskan Native. This is can be seen as she uses he Yupik word for “white,” to call out “whiteness” as different from her Alaskan Native identity. Therefore, Jenna portrays her unique identity as an Alaskan Native Central Yupik speaker, with a knowledge of standardized English, by calling out whiteness in the space of the technoscape. By doing so, she is making her own identity salient. Therefore, due to these facts, Jenna is participating in a wider social movement of decolonization and demything the homogeneity of the English language through specific online use.
Conclusion:
Jenna used her own specific version of WE on the technoscape. Language is fluid and is ever changing. The internet is a great place to practice and see different forms of language interaction. Additionally, Jenna showed mastery of both Yupik and English while blending the two languages. This is seen in the form of the word “Gusaqs” which could be specific to her dialect of Yupik and English from growing up in Dillingham, AK. However, this combination of “Gusaqs” is not seen in the Central Yupik Dictionary which leads the researcher to think that this is Jenna’s own negotiation between her two primarily used languages: Yupik and English. Jenna also was able to portray her unique Alaska Native identity by writing in Yupik on Facebook. She was able to share with her audience that not only did she both understand Yupik and English, but that she had mastered both them. This can be seen as she phonetically plays with the structure of the word, Kass'aq, to portray meaning. Jenna’s use of the letter “G” in “Gusaqs” instead of the classic letter “K” shows her multilingual negotiation between her two languages: Yupik and English. Further, her use of the English prefix-s, to denote plurality of the Yupik word, strengthens this hypothesis.
In conclusion, by engaging on the technoscape, Jenna was able to circumnavigate Facebook by negotiating between her two languages to show her dual identity as both Alaska Native and American. She could also be said to be participating in indigenous revival by poking fun at her previous colonizer. Jenna’s use of “Gusaqs” is a slur of sorts and shows her unique identity on Facebook to her digital peers. By posting this comment attached to the “White People vs. Snacks video,” she is conveying socially where she grew up, what languages she speaks, what is culturally appropriate to her, and that she denounces whiteness as invisible. Overall, though Jenna’s Facebook post is short, it is linguistically very unique and provided a fruitful analysis.
Works Cited
Appadurai, Arjun. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy,” In the Cultural Studies Reader, Simon During [editor]. 1993. New York: Routledge. 220-230.
Black, Rebecca W. “Online Fan Fiction, Global Identities, and Imagination.” Research in the Teaching of English, 2009, Vol. 43, No. 4, 397-423.
Bhatt, Rakesh M. “World Englishes.” Annual Review of Anthropology: ProQuest Psychology Journals, 2001, Vol. 30, 527-550.
Combs, Teresa V. “English Language Learners Negotiating Japanese and English on An Online Social Networking Site: A Thesis.” ProQuest. August 2013. Anchorage: University of Alaska Anchorage [Master of Art’s Dissertation].
Jacobson, Steven A. Central Yup’ik and the Schools: A Handbook for Teachers. Alaska Native Language Center, 1984, uaa.alaska.edu/academics/institutional-effectiveness, Accessed on 26 Nov. 2018
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Alexandra A. Ellis is a senior pursuing a Baccalaureate of Arts in English and a minor in Psychology.
