Cover not available
Part of
The Sociolinguistics of Place and Belonging: Perspectives from the margins
Edited by Leonie Cornips and Vincent A. de Rooij
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 45] 2018
► pp. 261–286

Chapter 13
Yooperisms in tourism

Commodified enregistered features in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula’s linguistic landscape

| Grand Valley State University
This ethnography explores interpretive practices in the multimodal landscape of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a remote and rural region in the United States, to examine the role of tourism in discursive representations of identity. The study is distinct from other linguistic landscape research in that it investigates the role of commodified enregistered features in redefining cultural values about identity and its relationship to place in the periphery. The indexes communicated through enregistered features in signs, souvenirs, monuments, digital media, and news accounts lead to new and limited meanings. More significantly, as commodities, these contextualized features function not only to sell souvenirs, but also to sell the idea of a dialect, a sense of place, and a regional persona, but only because their meanings are recognizable, valued, and valuable. Their value lies in regenerated ideological schemas that have emerged from sociohistorical processes and events and related discursive practices. At the center of this intersection is tourism, which affects enregisterment and commodification, and the semiotic practices that link identity, and place.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Centralized meanings in the periphery
  • Methods
  • The geographic landscape: Commodification of place and identity
  • The sociolinguistic landscape: Commodification of dialect, identity, and place
  • Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Mediography
Published online: 7 March 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.45.13rem
References (51)
References
Agha, A. 2003. The social life of a cultural value. Language & Communication 23: 231–73. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007. Language and Social Relations. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Anderson, B. 2006. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the origins and spread of nationalism, 2nd edn. New York NY: Verso Books.Google Scholar
Bauman, R. 1992. Contextualization, tradition, and the dialogue of genres: Icelandic legends of the kraftaskáld . In Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon, A. Duranti & C. Goodwin (eds), 125–45. New York NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Beal, J. 2009a. “You’re not from New York City, You’re from Rotherham”: Dialect and identity in British Indie Music. Journal of English Linguistics 37(3): 223–240. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2009b. Enregisterment, commodification, and historical context: “Geordie” versus “Sheffieldish”. American Speech 84(2): 138–156. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2000. From Geordie Ridley to viz: Popular literature in Tyneside English. Language and Literature 9(4): 343–359. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blommaert, J. 2013. Ethnography, Superdiversity, and Linguistic Landscapes. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Bucholtz, M. & Hall, K. 2005. Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies 7(4–5): 585–614. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cornips, L., de Rooij, V., Stengs, I. & Thissen, L. 2016. Local language and local media: Reproducing the multi-dialectal space of Limburg (the Netherlands). In Style, Media and Language Ideologies [SLICE series], N. Coupland, J. Mortensen & J. Thørgersen (eds), 189–216. Oslo: Novus Press.Google Scholar
Duchêne, A. & Heller, M. 2012. Pride and profit: Changing discourses of language, capital, and nation-state. In Language in Late Capitalism: Pride and profit, A. Duchêne & M. Heller (eds), 1–12. New York NY: RoutledgeGoogle Scholar
DuLong, J. 2001. French Canadians in Michigan. East Lansing MI: Michigan State University Press.Google Scholar
Eble. C. 2009. French in New Orleans: The commodification of language heritage. American Speech 84(2): 211–215. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
eh. 2013. Digital Dictionary of American Regional English, J. Houston Hall (ed.). <[URL]> (1 October 2016).
Gal, S. & Irvine, J. 2000. Language ideology and linguistic differentiation. In Regimes of Language: Ideologies, Polities, and Identities, P. Kroskrity (ed.), 35–84. Santa Fe NM: School of American Research Press.Google Scholar
Landry, R. & Bourhis, R. 1997. Linguistic landscape and ethnolinguistic vitality. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 16(1): 23–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnstone, B., Andrus, J. & Danielson, A. 2006. Mobility, indexicality, and the enregisterment of “Pittsburghese.” Journal of English Linguistics 34(2): 77–104. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnstone, B. 2017. Characterological figures and expressive style in the enregisterment of linguistic variety. In A Sense of Place: Studies in Language and Region, Chris Montgomery & Emma Moore (eds). Cambridge: CUP. <[URL]> DOI logo
2013. Speaking Pittsburghese: The Story of a Dialect. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kallen, J. 2009. Tourism and representation in the Irish linguistic landscape. In Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the Scenery, E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (eds), 270–283. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lankton, L. 2010. Hollowed Ground: Copper Mining and Community Building on Lake Superior, 1840s–1990s. Detroit MI: Wayne State University Press.Google Scholar
Leeman, J. & Modan, G. 2009. Commodified language in Chinatown: A contextualized approach to linguistic landscape. Journal of Sociolinguistics 13(3): 333–363. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Levy, F. 2010, October 25. The best small cities to raise a family. Forbes. <[URL]>
Loukinen, M. 1997. Cultural tracks: Finnish Americans in the Upper Peninsula. In A Sense of Place: Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, R. Magnaghi & M. Madsen (eds), 15–34. Marquette MI: Northern Michigan University Press.Google Scholar
Milory, J. 2002. “The Legitimate Language: Giving a History to English.” In Alternative Histories of English, R. Watts and P. Trudgill, (eds), 7–25. New York NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Moriarty, M. 2014. Contesting language ideologies in the linguistic landscape of an Irish tourist town. International Journal of Bilingualism 18(5): 464–477. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ochs, E. 1992. Indexing gender. In Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon, A. Duranti & C. Goodwin (eds), 335–358. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Pietikäinena, S., Lane, P., Saloa, H. & Laihiala-Kankainena, S. 2011. Frozen actions in the Arctic linguistic landscape: A nexus analysis of language processes in visual space. International Journal of Multilingualism 8(4): 277–298. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pietikäinen, S. Compton, S. & Dlaske, K. 2015. Putting resources into practice: A nexus analysis of knowledge mobilisation activities in language research and multilingual communities, Current Issues in Language Planning 16(3): 187–200, DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Remlinger, K. 2017. Yooper Talk: Dialect as Identity in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
2016. Say yah to da Finns, eh! Linguistically creating Finnishness at festivals. Journal of Finnish Studies 19(1): 163–186.Google Scholar
2009. “Everyone up here”: Enregisterment and identity in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. American Speech 84(2): 118–137. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007. The intertwined histories of dialect and identity in Michigan’s Copper Country. In New Perspectives on Michigan’s Copper Country, A. K. Hoagland, E. C. Nordberg & T. S. Reynolds (eds), 73–83. Hancock MI: Quincy Mine Hoist Association.Google Scholar
2006. What it means to be a Yooper: Identity, language attitudes, and variation in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. In Topics in Dialectal Variation, M. Filppula, M. Palander, J. Klemola & E. Penttilä (eds), 125–144. Joensuu: University of Joensuu Press.Google Scholar
Scollon, R. & Wong Scollon, S. 2004. Nexus Analysis: Discourse and the Emerging Internet. New York NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Scollon, R. & Wong Scollon, S. 2003. Discourses in Place: Languages in the Material World. New York NY: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Silverstein, M. 1985. Language and the culture of gender: At the intersection of structure, usage and ideology. In Semiotic Mediation, E. Mertz & R. Parmentier (eds), 219–59. Orlando FL: Academic Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2003. Indexical order and the dialects of sociolinguistics life. Language & Communication 23: 193–229. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shohamy, E. & Gorter, D. (eds). 2009. Linguistic Landscapes: Expanding the Scenery. New York NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Smith, V. & Brent, M., (eds). 2001. Hosts and guests revisited: Tourism issues of the 21st Century. New York NY: Cognizant Communication Corporation.Google Scholar
Thurner, A. 1984. Rebels of the Range: The Michigan Copper Miners’ Strike of 1913–1914. Lake Linden MI: John H. Forster Press.Google Scholar
United State Government, United States Census Bureau. 2012. United States Census Bureau, American Fact Finder. <[URL]> (14 December 2012).
Urry, J. 2005. The consuming of place. In Discourse, Communication, and Tourism, A. Jaworski & A. Pritchard (eds). 19–27. Clevedon: Channel View Publications.Google Scholar
Virtanen, H. 2014. Heikinpäivä in Hancock: Commemoration, Creativity, and Community. PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison.Google Scholar
Mediography
Holland, M. 2012, April 27. Yoopers upset that Pure Michigan promotion doesn’t include Upper Peninsula ‘bests’. Mlive. <[URL]> (2 November 2015).
Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Pure Michigan cities are being recognized [sic] in Top 10 lists nationwide – check out our new [Infographic]. Facebook. <[URL]>
One Nation’s Online Project. Michigan map. <[URL]> (2 November 2015).
Snowfall records. Michigan Tech Alumni Relations. <[URL]> (4 November 2015).
Stern, J. & Stern, M. 2013, October 23. Upper Crust. The culinary glory of Michigan’s Route 41. Saveur. <[URL]> (30 October 2015).
Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Wikipedia. <[URL]> (4 November 2015).
Upper Peninsula Travel Guide. How do you pronounce “sauna”? <[URL]> (10 November 2015).