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In:The Sociolinguistics of Place and Belonging: Perspectives from the margins
Edited by Leonie Cornips and Vincent A. de Rooij
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 45] 2018
► pp. 177–204

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Chapter 9
What’s up in town

Place-making through the use of dialect in a Facebook chronicle of Leskovac (Southeast Serbia)

 | Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Published online: 7 March 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.45.09pet
Abstract
This chapter discusses linguistic strategies employed by the author of the Facebook page Koe ima po grad (What’s up in the town), who in his posts discusses various events and issues from local urban life of Leskovac, a city in Southeastern Serbia. Combining dialect with recognizable genres and discourses, he makes local idiom appropriate for use in diverse realms of communication, as well as an effective medium for place-making. Leskovac depicted in the Koe ima po grad texts is the place marked by deindustrialization, impoverishment, and the dysfunctional administration. Its citizens use dialect to critically and self-ironically relate to this reality. At the same time, they love their city and the local, real, and symbolic geographies that define it, and enjoy the sociality based on the use of local dialect.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Constructing peripherality
  • Dialects and the urban quality of Southeastern Serbia
  • Koe ima po grad: Dialect, humor, and authority based on authenticity
  • Relocalization of dialect
  • Creativity, authenticity and dialect use
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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