Programm 80. StuTS

My thesis investigates the influence of diaspora languages on contemporary German, with particular attention to Arabic, in the context of the migration processes that have shaped Germany over the past three decades. The first part focuses on Kiezdeutsch, drawing on sociolinguistic research that conceptualizes it as a multi-ethnolectal variety of German, rather than an impoverishment of the standard language. Particular attention is given to KiDKo, a digital corpus documenting instances of Kiezdeutsch in both monolingual and multilingual urban contexts. Kiezdeutsch is approached here as a communicative resource serving different social functions: as a Kontaktsprache also used by speakers without a migrant background, as a Jugendsprache to distance oneself from adult speakers, and as a means of negotiating boundaries between categories such as Deutscher and Ausländer.
The second part examines Migrant Hip Hop and its subsequent development into German Gangsta Rap as cultural and linguistic spaces in which contact between German and minority languages becomes particularly visible. It focuses on the use of minority languages as markers of identity and as resources for self-representation and self-narration.
Lastly, the thesis analyses the lyrics of five songs, predominantly in German but containing varying numbers of Arabic loanwords and expressions. The analysis identifies five main pragmatic functions of Arabic: everyday and culturally specific vocabulary; expressions of affection and solidarity; religious expressions; interjections; and vocabulary associated with criminal activity. These findings suggest that Arabic elements in German rap function not merely as lexical borrowings, but as flexible linguistic resources through which speakers express affect, cultural affiliation, social relationships, and several other aspects of identity.