6533b850fe1ef96bd12a82b5

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Tokooos! as a linguistic fashion: The recontextualization and appropriation of Lingala youth language

subject

description

Abstract This paper focuses on Lingala youth language (Bantu; DR Congo) and its recontextualization and use in the media and advertising industry, promoting music(ians), lifestyle products and telecommunication companies. Adolescents’ linguistic practices are often picked up and diffused by musicians and other public individuals, or at times even appropriated by them. This is exemplified by the innovative expression tokooos, which was used and diffused by the Congolese musician Fally Ipupa. The paper discusses the changing youth language practice Lingala ya Bayankee/Yanké from in-group language (of Congolese street-based adolescents) to a recontextualized commodified register, diffused beyond its community of practice and perceived as a “linguistic fashion”.