| This dissertation investigates the media's portrayal of the linguistic situation of the predominantly Turkish migrant communities in Germany by analyzing data gathered from films, television clips, interviews, radio clips and the Internet, paying specific attention to the vowel systems of each speaker. I observe that the most salient aspect in representations of Migrant Worker German (MWG) is a reduced syntax and morphology, while the most salient aspect of representations of Stylized Turkish German (STG), a resistance vernacular used by urban migrant youth, is a Turkish-influenced phonology. I argue that these stylized features are specifically marked in the media as the speech of criminal, violent, and macho migrant youth, and that this image is in direct opposition to the early media representations of the migrant workers as naive victims. Later representations also further strengthen the ties between the immigrant and hip hop communities though repeated portrayals of hip hop language as containing features identical (or at least, extremely similar) to those present in STG. |
