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This publication provides an overview of research on a large range of topics relating to language processing and language use from a life-span perspective. It is unique in covering and combining psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic approaches, discussing questions such as: Is it beneficial to speak more than one language when growing old? How are languages processed in multilingual persons, and how does this change over time? What happens to language and communication in multilingual aphasia or dementia? How is multilingual ageing portrayed in the media? It is a joint, cross-disciplinary venture of researchers from the Centre for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan at The University of Oslo and the editors of this publication.

The objective of this paper is to explore the dynamics of citizen science (CS) in sociolinguistics or Citizen Sociolinguistics, i.e. the engagement of non-professionals in doing sociolinguistic research. Based on a CS-study undertaken in Norway where we engaged young people as citizen scientists to explore linguistic diversity, this paper aims to clarify the definition of Citizen Sociolinguistics; it seeks to progress the discussion of the advantages of CS and of how CS can contribute to sociolinguistics; it also addresses the opposite: how sociolinguistics can contribute to the general field of citizen science; and it discusses the challenges of a CS-methodology for sociolinguistic research, epistemologically and ethically, as well as in terms of recruitment, quality control and possible types of sociolinguistic tasks and topics. To meet the needs of society and societal challenges of today there is a need to develop methods and establish scientific acceptance for the relevance of public engagement in research. This paper argues that Citizen Sociolinguistics has the potential to advance the societal impact of sociolinguistics by constructing a dialogue between ‘the academy’ and ‘the citizens’; Citizen Sociolinguistics relies on and encourages participatory citizen agency, provides research experience, stimulates curiosity, further research, public understanding of science, (socio)linguistic awareness and encourages linguistic stewardship.

In this article, we explore the naming skills of a bilingual English-Norwegian speaker diagnosed with Primary Progressive Aphasia, in each of his languages across three different speech contexts: confrontation naming, semi-spontaneous narrative (picture description), and conversation, and at two points in time: 12 and 30months post diagnosis, respectively. The results are discussed in light of two main theories of lexical retrieval in healthy, elderly speakers: the Transmission Deficit Hypothesis and the Inhibitory Deficit Theory. Our data show that, consistent with the participant's premorbid use of and proficiency in the two languages, his performance in his L2 is lower than in his L1, but this difference diminishes as the disease progresses. This is the case across the three speech contexts; however, the difference is smaller in the narrative task, where his performance is very low in both languages already at the first measurement point. Despite his word finding problems, he is able to take active part in conversation, particularly in his L1 and more so at the first measurement point. In addition to the task effect, we find effects of word class, frequency, and cognateness on his naming skills. His performance seems to support the Transmission Deficit Hypothesis. By combining different tools and methods of analysis, we get a more comprehensive picture of the impact of the dementia on the speaker's languages from an intra-individual as well as an inter-individual perspective, which may be useful in research as well as in clinical practice.

Over the last 20 years, linguists have documented the emergence of multiethnolectal speech among adolescents in linguistically and culturally diverse areas in Western Europe. The main approach to multiethnolects has been structural or dialectological, describing the varieties' linguistic traits. Another important approach has been sociopragmatic or functional, examining how multiethnolects are used in discourse. In this article, we have applied both approaches. We will discuss linguistic features of multiethnolectal speech among adolescents in Oslo, Norway, highlighting those traits that have parallels in other Scandinavian multiethnolects. Furthermore, we will discuss multiethnolectal use in discourse as an important marker of identity, focusing on the use of multiethnolect among adolescents with Norwegian as their first language. In this article, we will argue that multiethnolectal Norwegian is part of a larger individual and societal linguistic repertoire, and that its users are sensitive to its sociolinguistic significance.

Social network analysis has proved particularly useful in explaining why speakers in bilingual communities maintain or change their language behavior. Researchers have employed this sociolinguistic tool to investigate language shift and maintenance among longstanding stable bilingual communities. An underlying assumption in this analysis is that language, particularly the first language or mother tongue, is an integral part of collective identities, such as national, ethnic or cultural identities, and that maintenance of language across generations is a key factor to the maintenance of such identities. Certain bilingual communities may maintain this language ideology; however, multilingual communities present a more complex picture of the situation and may thus offer a challenge to the underlying assumptions of social network analysis. This article discusses the application of social network analysis to multilingual communities by taking a point of departure in the Filipino community in Oslo, the capital of Norway, with a view towards understanding linguistic and cultural maintenance. Results from the analyses provide support for the importance of social network in understanding language choice and cultural and linguistic maintenance; however, there were some notable exceptions. In this article we discuss language ideologies and the relationship between language and identity as complementary sources of explanation for language choice and language maintenance in this relatively speaking newly established multilingual community.

Part I. Content and Concepts: 1. Language, youth and identity in the twenty-first century: content and continuations Bente Ailin Svendsen 2. Contemporary urban vernaculars Ben Rampton 3. The politics of labelling youth vernaculars in the Netherlands and Belgium Leonie Cornips, Jurgen Jaspers and Vincent de Rooij Part II. Forms and Functions: 4. Beyond verb second - a matter of novel information structural effects? Evidence from Norwegian, Swedish, German and Dutch Ulrike Freywald, Leonie Cornips, Natalia Ganuza, Ingvild Nistov and Toril Opsahl 5. Functional gains: a cross-linguistic case study on three particles in Swedish, Norwegian and German Lena Ekberg, Toril Opsahl and Heike Wiese Part III. Language Practice, Values and Identity in Media and Popular Culture: 6. Shooting the subversive: when non-normative linguistic practices go mainstream in the media Tommaso M. Milani, Rickard Jonsson and Innocentia Jabulisile Mhlambi 7. Where the fuck am I from? Hip-hop youth and the (re)negotiation of language and identity in Norway and the US Cecilia Cutler and Unn Royneland Part IV. Language Practice as Emblems of Becoming and Belonging: 8. Emblems of identities in four European urban settings Adrian Blackledge and Angela Creese 9. Language and language ideologies among Turkish-speaking young people in Athens and London Vally Lytra Part V. Language Practice and Positioning in Interaction: 10. Stylized voices of ethnicity and social division Lian Malai Madsen and Bente A. Svendsen 11. Verbal teasing among young people in Koge and Eskisehir Hulya Ozcan, Lian Malai Madsen, Ilknur Kecik and Jens Normann Jorgensen Part VI. Language Practice and Urban Space: 12. Indexing locality: contemporary urban vernaculars in Belgium and Norway Finn Aars'ther, Stefania Marzo, Ingvild Nistov and Evy Ceuleers 13. Urban youth speech styles in Kenya and the Netherlands Margreet Dorleijn, Maarten Mous and Jacomine Nortier 14. Sociolinguistic practice among multilingual youth: comparing Swedish cities with Toronto Sally Boyd, James A. Walker and Michol F. Hoffman.

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the sociolinguistic discussion about the need for a unified sociological theory, by applying realist social theory (RST) (Carter and Sealey, this volume) to the total linguistic fact (TLF) (Silverstein 1985) or to the semiotics of ‘new’ speech styles in heterogeneous urban spaces. We explore, with data from Belgium (Flanders, Limburg) on Citétaal and Norway on so-called kebabnorsk, the ways structure and agency are omnipresent in the enregisterment of these semiotic registers. Through media discourse analyses, we investigate essential parts of this enregisterment process, in particular the invention and diffusion of labels and the assignment of stereotypical indexical values to these speech styles and to their alleged speakers. We demonstrate, in line with other studies, that media in interplay with scholars is a key force in the enregisterment of these speech styles. In the analysed media discourse, kebabnorsk and Citétaal are constructed as a ‘mixed language’, as a countable and uniform entity, the use of which inevitably results in unemployment. The alleged language users are constructed as a homogeneous group, namely ‘young people with migrant backgrounds’. It is shown that social structure, including asymmetric power relations and language hegemonies, are omnipresent in the valorisation of these registers and that media discourses rely on language ideologies of unity and purity, ideologies central to a monolingual orientation. We advocate a translingual orientation towards language and communication in which communication transcends languages and involves negotiation of mobile resources. This orientation captures the ontology of language and communication and has, as such, the potential to empower the language users’ individual agencies.