English in Norway's multilingual North. A rhizomatic view on encounters with historical and transnational diversity

Abstract

The chapter explores the multifaceted role of English in the complex and dynamic multilingual surrounding of Northern Norway, a region that has been linguistically diverse throughout history. Sámi languages and Kven have historical roots in the region and are today minoritized. More recently, linguistic diversity is affected by transnational migration, tourism, and global communication. The chapter builds on Deleuze and Guattari’s idea of rhizomatic connections. Instead of comparing sociolinguistic categories or domains, three cases of multilingual encounters are scrutinized with the aim to sketch a multiplicity of dynamic connections of linguistic practices and sociolinguistic relations within and across these. Findings show how seemingly diglossic practices – where the use of English and Norwegian keeps groups of speakers apart – encounter practices where such boundaries of languages and groups get completely blurred; how the use of English can mark both belonging and otherness at the top and bottom of workplace hierarchies; and how global English is conceived as more or less threatening to minoritized languages. The chapter argues for the importance of viewing multiplicities of connections and intersecting discourses rather than hierarchies, categories, and domains when studying the role of English in social contexts in the North.