Translanguaging as an Expression of Transnational Identity: Ethnicity Renegotiation in the Indian Diaspora

Non-linguists are usually able to discriminate accurately between different language patterns (Niedzielski and Preston 2003; Preston 2010) although long-standing scholarly tradition has often, if not always, contradicted their views of language (Boas 1917; Bloomfield, in Hall 1950). Moreover, in diasporic settings, speakers' constant need of renegotiating the problem of ethnicity is often resolved in their willingness to shed their regional, linguistic and ethnic identities to the detriment of their more general pan-Indian one (Jayaram 2004). In an Indian diasporic community situated in Heidelberg, Germany, perceived subtle differences in L2 phonological characteristics may index local and situated ethnic identities. In order to ascertain whether dialectal variation has salience for the community, this paper presents findings on how translanguaging might be a valuable linguistic resource in the expression of speakers' ethnic identities. A qualitative analysis of questionnaires, interviews and informal conversations has delineated a new 'diaspora consciousness' (Vertovec 1997) in light of the transient aspect of the community in question.