Alastair Pennycook is Professor of Language in Education at the University of Technology Sydney. He is the author of many titles, including Language as a Local Practice (2010) and Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows (2007).
Emi Otsuji is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney. She is the co-editor of the book Languages and Identities in a Transitional Japan: From Internationalization to Globalization (2015) and the Japanese editor for The Japan Journal of Multilingualism and Multicultuarlism.
In their new book, Pennycook and Otsuji introduce the notion of 'metrolingualism': the use of language in urban contexts by people of differing linguistic backgrounds. Due to increasing urban diversity, the use of language within cities is changing. The authors explore language and linguistics within a number of contemporary situations, including markets, the kitchen and construction sites. Using different global cities as examples, the book engages with current debates about multilingualism and develops a new way of thinking about language. This text will be of interest to postgraduate students and researchers of sociolinguistics and applied linguistics.
Chapter 1 Morning markets and metrolingual multitasking
The Produce Market: Salamu alaykum mate
Languages of the market: lingo-ing in their own language
Multilingualism from below
Metrolingual multitasking in a restaurant
Beyond monolingualism: Niemand ist Einsprachig
Research notes and emergent themes
Chapter 2: Constructing affiliations and growing foreign vegetables
Gwai Lou Coi: Growing foreign vegetables
Metrolingualism, the rural and the urban
'People are basically from everywhere': Ethnicity and language at work
Ethnic business and ethnolinguistic repertoires
Ethnography as process
Chapter 3: Mobility, rhythms and the city
Catching a train in Sydney
The breathing city
Metrolingualism, space and mobility: 'chef, iedi efu iki kishu'
Research: Languages and the unexpected
Chapter 4 Kitchen talk and spatial repertoires
The Pizzeria: 'it's all part of the Greek culture'
Kitchen repertoires
Spatial repertoires: "Pizza mo two minutes coming"
Location and locution
Researching language, mobility and practices in place
Chapter 5: Convivial and contested cities
'It's too many languages': Suburban diversities
Conviviality and the city
"I'll fix you up, ya Lebs!": Everyday contestation
The contested city
Aussies and 'the worst general Asian ever'
Research and stories: The chicken mime
Chapter 6: Talking food: Commensality and the city
The Fanta is always greener back home
Talking food
'Makanai des pauvres'
"Ma fi fruit bi nom? (There's no fruit at all?)"
Red celery and the negotiation of meaning
Relocalization
Multitasking and participatory research
Chapter 7: Layers, spaces, signs, networks
Out-of-place texts
The historical layers of cities
Port cities
Layered languages
Researching networks: The multilingual cucumber
Chapter 8 Metrolingua francas
Languages and the market
" language !": From niche to metrolingua francas
Metrolingual pedagogies and policies
Conclusion: Writing it all together
This book is about language and the city. Pennycook and Otsuji introduce the notion of 'metrolingualism', showing how language and the city are deeply involved in a perpetual exchange between people, history, migration, architecture, urban landscapes and linguistic resources. Cities and languages are in constant change, as new speakers with new repertoires come into contact as a result of globalization and the increased mobility of people and languages.
Metrolingualism sheds light on the ordinariness of linguistic diversity as people go about their daily lives, getting things done, eating and drinking, buying and selling, talking and joking, drawing on whatever linguistic resources are available. Engaging with current debates about multilingualism, and developing a new way of thinking about language, the authors explore language within a number of contemporary urban situations, including cafés, restaurants, shops, streets, construction sites and other places of work, in two diverse cities, Sydney and Tokyo. This is an invaluable look at how people of different backgrounds get by linguistically.
Metrolingualism: Language in the city will be of special interest to advanced undergraduate/postgraduate students and researchers of sociolinguistics and applied linguistics.