Ein „Untergrund-Kodex“ in der deutschen multilingualen Gesellschaft: Kanak Sprak

Abstract

Our contribution focuses on a linguistic phenomenon in contemporary society in Germany, which has as well consequences in the cultural field: the so-called kanak sprak. In their relationship with the German language reflects the kanak sprak, the language of the kanaks, an “ethnolect”, as Martin Schramm would define it. According to the journalist and Turkish-German author/writer Feridun Zaimoğlu would kanake be defined as “a label that not only is a dirty word for more than 30 years history of immigration of Turks, but also a name that the children of the Gastarbeiter of especially the second and the third generation lead with proud defiance” (2007: 9). In this sense, our study aims to analyze this “underground Code” (2007: 13), as Feridun Zaimoğlu called, in the following works: Kanak Sprak – 24 Mißtöne vom Rande der Gesellschaft (1995; 2007) and Kopf und Kragen – KanakKultur-Kompendium (2001; 2006). Finally, it should be noted that such works can be interpreted as a “counter-narrative of the nation” (Bhabha 1990: 149).