NicoNassenstein is junior professor of African Languages and Linguistics at the Department of Anthropology and African Studies (JGU Mainz, Germany). He is co-editor of the journal The Mouth and of the book series “Anthropological Linguistics” (De Gruyter Mouton). His most recent books are “Metasex: The Discourse of Intimacy and Transgression” (John Benjamins 2020, with A. Storch) and “Swearing and Cursing” (De Gruyter Mouton 2020, with A. Storch). He is interested in Bantu languages from Central and East Africa, and studies their social and cultural contexts.
Studying Language at the Beach: Perspectives on Contact and Change In the Context of Tourism
Beaches are spaces of language contact and language change, especially in contemporary contexts of mass tourism. However, descriptive work on changing or emerging language practices in touristified areas does not fully grasp the complexities around socioculturally changing landscapes in these contexts. In my talk, I focus on the East African coast as a space of multilingual and multicultural encounters (with a longstanding historical tradition) and I intend to show perspectives on language intertwined in power asymmetries and marginality in the tourism industry, creative performances, and language endangerment on the one and diversification on the other hand.
