The Code of Food and Tradition: Exploring a Lebanese (American) Speech Code in Practice in Flatland

Abstract

This study examines a recognizable speech code, the code of food and tradition, as displayed among members of a Lebanese community in Flatland, located in the central United States. Based upon in-depth interviews with 20 participants and three months of participant observation at a Lebanese food festival, we identify communication that is gendered, generationally shaped, and focused on tradition. These are manifest in both beliefs and everyday practices. Drawing upon Speech Codes Theory and Bakhtinian perspectives, we examine the communicative practices and beliefs as to what it means to “be Lebanese.”