Le plurilinguisme dans les cultures populaires, un terrain inexploré?

L’étude du langage mixte du rap montréalais en guise d’exemple

Abstract

This study makes use of the theoretical and methodological tools developed by the critical sociolinguistics to glance at the phenomenon of multilingualism in popular culture. The researchers, through the example of Montréal’s multilingual rap, adopt both an ethnographical and “hiphopographical” approach, allowing the hip-hop community members of Québec’s largest city to become partners in a collaborative model of research. Drawing from a database that comprises a corpus analysis of about forty songs released between 1999 and 2009, as well as many interviews conducted with rappers and young informants, this study demonstrates how the young members of Montreal’s hip-hop community are comfortable when mixing tongues. The article also introduces a new term, the “Québéquicité”, which constitutes a theoretical tool for understanding how the multilingual uses of Montréal’s rap challenge the linguistic power structures in Québec. By creating a “Montréal-specific” style, which draws from the multiethnic nature of the hip-hop community, the multilingual rappers perform an implicit uprooting of some central tenets of Québec national identity, as constructed through the centuries.