Discursive Construction of Identity: Nggahi Mbojo-English Code-Switching in Bimanese Youth’s Social Media Writing

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-587-4_15How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Code-Switching; Digital Ethnography; Identity Construction; Social Media; Sociolinguistics

Abstract

This study examines how Bimanese youth discursively construct their hybrid identities through code-switching practices between the Bimanese language (Nggahi Mbojo) and English in their social media writing. This investigation is pivotal as it challenges the assumption that global digital platforms inevitably erode local linguistic heritage, offering crucial insights into the resilience of minority languages in the digital age. Employing a qualitative approach with a digital ethnographic (netnographic) design, this research analyzes textual artifacts from three distinct social contexts—campus politics, sports, and culture—collected from Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook. The findings reveal a strategic ‘linguistic division of labor,’ where the Bimanese language, exemplified by exclusive phrases like “Mai ra dou Mbojo” (Come on, Bimanese people) and the emotive intensifier “poda”, consistently functions as an in-group identity marker, serving as a cultural anchor that affirms emotional authenticity and ethnic solidarity. Conversely, English expressions such as “game changer” and “the struggle was real” are employed as a medium to project a cosmopolitan self-image and accumulate symbolic capital within the global linguistic economy. Beyond a mere division of roles, the primary finding indicates that Bimanese youth creatively blend these two languages through translanguaging practices to perform a fluid and dynamic ‘glocal identity.’ This practice is not a manifestation of identity confusion but rather a sophisticated form of linguistic agency used to present a self-image as a modern and globally-connected ‘Dou Mbojo.’ The implications of these findings are significant, as they shed light on the complex relationship between language use and identity construction among Bimanese youth.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Umar Umar
AU  - Sri Arfani
AU  - A. Rahman
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/12
TI  - Discursive Construction of Identity: Nggahi Mbojo-English Code-Switching in Bimanese Youth’s Social Media Writing
BT  - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on English Studies in Indonesia (ICONESIA 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 171
EP  - 181
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-587-4_15
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-587-4_15
ID  - Umar2026
ER  -