Despite the fact that the majority of Internet users around the world communicate in languages other than English, relatively few studies of computer-mediated communication (CMC) have focused on non-English speakers. In this volume, editors Danet and Herring address this gap by presenting examples of work being done in the emerging field of multilingual CMC, suggesting future directions for CMC studies within the expanding global communication network. The book is divided into five major sections: “Writing systems,” “Linguistic and discourse features of CMC,” “Gender and culture,” “Language choice,” and “Linguistic diversity.” The majority of research in this volume investigates micro-level choices made by CMC participants, looking not only at various forms of linguistic problem solving, but also at how language ideology, technical affordances, and social contexts factor into such interactions.
Such a book presupposes that CMC differs between languages, leading to the question: What are non-English users doing differently that would require our attention? A look at technical affordances of the Internet gives us one answer. As The multilingual Internet points out, technical restraints of ASCII code (the computer code used to develop Internet standards) initially limited the online use of writing systems to the standard roman alphabet. For languages whose writing systems use roman letters with minor variations (such as German), this is a minor issue. However, as we move to languages like Greek and Arabic, the problem of representation becomes apparent. While recent advances have been made through the implementation of Unicode and non-roman keyboards, of interest here is that despite these advances, non-English speakers continue to adapt spoken language to online environments in creative and playful ways.
This collection also examines how such choices relate to the social, gender, and class contexts under which communication is produced. For example, Arabic-speaking students communicating with each other through instant messaging use roman letters and numerals not as a linguistic compromise, but as a means of indexing generational in-group identity. Controversy around “Greeklish” (communicating in Greek using the roman alphabet) illustrates issues brought on by the Internet’s spread across cultures: How does the acceptance of global standards of communication affect local language systems? Do new forms of linguistic representation reflect expanding inclusivity of participants in global conversations, or the destruction of local linguistic traditions? In on-line spaces where multiple languages compete for audience, will more widespread languages like English overtake smaller language communities, such as Welsh or Croatian? Does this have ramifications for a speech community beyond the on-line environment?
A strength of this collection is its usefulness to a wide variety of scholars. The authors provide readers with enough background on theory, languages being studied, and technology at play so that specialists and nonspecialists alike should be able to apply relevant aspects of the work here to their own research. Beyond CMC researchers themselves, this volume should be of interest to linguists, sociolinguists, and linguistic anthropologists, as well as anyone studying intersections between technology, globalization, communication, and identity.
