Remixing the rules: Black Language and transatlantic linguistic flows

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study argues for the reading of Black Language from a translinguistic paradigm, one that understands English as a hybridized creole and shifts the attention away from the structures and rules that govern Black Language. Instead, I argue for an emphasis on the effects of Black Language practice as I claim that Black Language gains its legitimacy through the recognition of its movements, performances, and communal relevance rather than by its claims as structural and rule-governed. I then utilize the translinguistic paradigm to extend and remix two scholars who represent two different generations of Black Language scholarship in order to illustrate the political necessity of reading Black Language as a transatlantic linguistic flow. Ultimately, I argue that Black Language’s transatlantic connection lends itself to translingual inquiry and could prove to be a valuable site for future research focused on transatlantic linguistic flows.