ABSTRACT
The case of Northern Jutland presents an intermediate linguistic situation, which is in between completed standardization and strong dialect use. In this local context, elaborate usage of Standard Danish is considered marked. On the other hand, the local dialect is considered old and unintelligible. Linguistically, the way of speaking among the adolescents in Northern Jutland is best described as a mix of variables of Standard Danish, variables from the larger geographical area of the peninsula of Jutland, and from the specific region of Northern Jutland. Based on insights from five months of onsite fieldwork among 9th graders in the school of Hirtshals, this chapter presents an ethnographic analysis of the everyday practices of the young generation in Northern Jutland. This chapter firstly analyzes the ethnographically observed distinctions in the speech community in the school of Hirtshals and then compares this to the metalinguistic comments put to the fore by the participants themselves. The second part of the chapter zooms in on three different participants who are taken to be stylistic icons. Through qualitative analysis a detailed portrait is drawn of each of these participants social positioning in connection to their individual speech style. Attention is paid to social media behavior, which proves to be an important factor in some of these participants local (dis)associations. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how local features and Standard may not exclusively be indexes of attachments to place but in this specific community may be linked to sociability and normativity. Also, the social media data offer insights into alternative semiotic ways of doing local attachment, which draw on visual signs rather than traditional dialect features.
