ABSTRACT
The concept of Southern multilingualisms (Heugh 2017; Heugh & Stroud 2014; Pennycook & Makoni 2019) currently gaining traction in sociolinguistics, suggests two important perspectives on multilingualism. First, multilingualism in ‘Southern’ contexts may present differently than in ‘Northern’ ones. Second, multilingualism manifests plurally – multilingualisms – both within and among presumed North–South dichotomies.
I consider multilingual interactions in situations of unbalanced power, engaging Southern and decolonial perspectives which disrupt assumptions of a North–South dichotomy. I explore ‘South–South’ situations where ‘Southern’ speakers interact in contexts centering Southern languages and perspectives, and ‘South–North’ encounters, where Northern languages and perspectives are considered the ‘center.’ I draw on narratives shared by women of African heritage now settled in Australia which occur at four points along their migration – displacement, asylum, resettlement, and return.
Findings suggest that multilingual interactions in ‘South–South’ and ‘South–North’ contexts reveal sociolinguistic flexibility and identity management. Moreover, the stories suggest that the women draw on ideologies of ‘named’ language in both contexts to create spaces of inclusion and exclusion to their advantage. This may contribute to (un/re)settling notions of linguistic peripheries and centers, as well as understandings of power evidenced through shifting boundaries of language(s).
