The DOI matches its Crossref record; 3 of the 3 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Language in the middle: Class and sexuality on the Hinglish continuum
Abstract
This article draws from ethnographic research among youth in Delhi's expanding middle classes to call for more sociolinguistic attention to the role played by sexuality discourse in the reproduction of class relations. The discussion highlights the centrality of the middle classes to sustaining as well as shifting sexual normativity, suggesting that sexual norms are in part constituted through everyday discourses that situate middle class subjectivity between two class extremes. Specifically, the article tracks how Hinglish, as a mixed‐language alternative to a class system polarized by English and Hindi, came to rival English as the preferred language of sexuality, challenging the elite censorship of “vernacular” languages that began in nineteenth‐century colonialism. However, as demonstrated by two case studies of queer speakers at different ends of the Hinglish continuum, speakers of this internally diverse hybrid variety are not equally able to master the sexuality discourse that has become indexical of upward mobility.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Data selected for analysis come from four moments during interviews when race was explicitly mentioned, chosen because of the contrasting social locations held by participants.
“Following calls for sociocultural linguistic research which considers the intersection of race with gender and sexuality (Ehrlich, 2021;Hall, 2021;Lane, 2019;Lanehart, 2021;miles-hercules, 2022), the data selected for analysis here come from four moments during the interviews when race was explicitly mentioned, chosen because of the contrasting social locations held by the participants.”
From ‘You're not supposed to be gay, you're black’: Analysing race and LGBTQ+ youth identity through an intersectional lens (2025) · cites this paper as Hall, 2021
Hall (2021) advocates research into unmarked middle-class discourse in language and sexuality, as this facilitates understanding how some sexual behaviours are normalised whereas others are stigmatised.
“Hall (2021) similarly advocates research into unmarked middle-class discourse in the context of language and sexuality, as this facilitates an understanding of how some sexual behaviours (those of the relatively privileged) are normalised, whereas others (those of the already marginalised) are stigmatised.”
From ‘You're not supposed to be gay, you're black’: Analysing race and LGBTQ+ youth identity through an intersectional lens (2025) · cites this paper as Hall, 2021
Citations
Cites
Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color
Crenshaw, K. (1991) · Stanford Law Review · doi:10.2307/1229039 · Cited by 32,792
Borderlands/La frontera: the new mestiza
Anzaldúa, G. (2017) · Censored · doi:10.1515/9780773551886-027 · Cited by 10,736
Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center
Jackson, S. (1985) · Ufahamu A Journal of African Studies · doi:10.5070/f7143017029 · Cited by 4,441
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 111
- Agha A, 2007, Language and social relations
- 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190845995.001.0001 · DOI
- 10.1111/josl.12409 · DOI
- 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190212926.013.72 · DOI
- Barrett R., 1999, Reinventing identities: The gendered self in discourse, 313, 10.1093/oso/9780195126297.003.0017 · DOI
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199937295.003.0010 · DOI
- 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190212926.013.18 · DOI
- 10.1177/026327640201900101 · DOI
- 10.1353/anq.2004.0002 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1086/448325 · DOI
- Bhatia K. C., 1967, A linguistic study of English loanwords in Hindi
- Bhatt R. M., 2005, Reclaiming the local in language policy and practice, 25
- Block D., 2014, Social class in applied linguistics
- 10.1558/genl.38416 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1515/ijsl-2018-2011 · DOI
- 10.1558/genl.40883 · DOI
- Bourdieu P., 1984, Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste
- Bourdieu P., 1991, Language and symbolic power
- 10.1515/9783110198805.4.371 · DOI
- Cameron D., 1997, Language and masculinity, 47
- 10.1111/1467‐9481.00119 · DOI
- 10.1111/josl.12461 · DOI
- 10.1111/j.1467‐9841.2010.00465.x · DOI
- 10.1111/josl.12359 · DOI
- 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190212926.013.42 · DOI · Paper page
- Cmiel K., 1991, Democratic eloquence: The fight over popular speech in nineteenth‐century America
- 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190212926.013.61 · DOI
- 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190845995.013.17 · DOI
- Davis A. Y., 1983, Women, race & class
- 10.1111/josl.12309 · DOI
- Eckert P., 1989, Jocks & burnouts: Social categories and identity in the high school
- 10.1146/annurev.an.21.100192.002333 · DOI · Paper page
- Ehrenreich B., 1983, The hearts of men: American dreams and the flight from commitment
- Ferguson A., 2019, Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy (Spring 2019 Edition)
- 10.1080/14672710601073028 · DOI
- 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190212926.013.73 · DOI
- 10.2307/800492 · DOI
- 10.1017/S0047404500005303 · DOI
- 10.1146/annurev.an.18.100189.002021 · DOI
- 10.1558/genl.19526 · DOI
- 10.1017/S0047404503325035 · DOI
- 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190212926.013.3 · DOI
- 10.1007/978-1-349-16638-1 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1525/9780520955417 · DOI
- Goldstein T., 1995, Gender articulated: Language and the socially constructed self, 375
- Gonzales Valásquez M. D., 1995, Gender articulated: Language and the socially constructed self, 421
- 10.1558/genl.37393 · DOI
- 10.1057/9780230108196 · DOI
- 10.1525/jlin.2005.15.1.125 · DOI
- 10.1057/9780230280748_7 · DOI
- 10.1177/0957926513490321 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1075/japc.24.2.06hal · DOI
- 10.1017/S0047404519000435 · DOI
- Hall K., 2021, The international encyclopedia of linguistic anthropology, 892
- 10.4324/9781315514857-8 · DOI
- Heiman R., 2012, The global middle classes: Theorizing through ethnography, 3
- 10.1515/9783110198805.3.287 · DOI
- 10.1146/annurev.anthro.012809.104951 · DOI
- 10.1075/prag.5.2.07hil · DOI
- 10.1525/9780520939066 · DOI
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195304169.001.0001 · DOI
- Kachru B. B., 1979, Linguistic method: Essays in honor of Herbert Penzl, 199
- Kothari R., 2012, Chutnefying English: The phenomenon of Hinglish
- Labov W., 1972, Sociolinguistic patterns
- LaDousa C., 2014, Hindi is our ground, English is our sky: Education, language, and social class in contemporary India, 10.3167/9781782382324 · DOI
- 10.4324/9780203428573_chapter_3 · DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-030-23319-8 · DOI · Paper page
- Lanehart S. L., 2009, Diversity and intersectionality, Texas Linguistics Forum, 53
- 10.1111/lnc3.12147 · DOI
- 10.1515/9780691221748 · DOI
- 10.1111/josl.12414 · DOI
- Mallinson C.(2006).The dynamic construction of race class and gender through linguistic practice among women in a Black Appalachian community. PhD Dissertation North Carolina State.
- 10.1017/S0047404520000895 · DOI
- Mazzarella M., 2009, Censorship in South Asia: Cultural regulation from sedition to seduction, 1
- 10.1515/9783110198805 · DOI
- 10.1002/9780470693728 · DOI
- 10.1017/CBO9780511613616 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1017/S0026749X19000039 · DOI
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226327990.001.0001 · DOI
- 10.1215/9780822383628 · DOI
- Ochs E., 1984, Culture theory: Essays on mind, self, and emotion, 276
- Ochs E., 1995, Gender articulated: Language and the socially constructed self, 97
- 10.1080/00020184.2015.1045721 · DOI
- 10.1215/9780822388456 · DOI · Paper page
- Pandian M. S. S., 2002, One step outside modernity: Caste, identity politics and public sphere, Economic and Political Weekly, 37, 1735
- 10.1075/japc.24.2.05par · DOI
- 10.1016/j.physa.2016.01.015 · DOI
- 10.1515/9783110198805.1.41 · DOI
- Puri J., 1999, Woman, body, desire in post‐colonial India: Narratives of gender and sexuality
- 10.1515/9783110222654.1 · DOI
- 10.1111/jola.12156 · DOI
- 10.1075/wlp.4.04roy · DOI
- 10.4337/9781783479016.00033 · DOI
- Satyanath S., 2016, Downscaling culture: Revisiting intercultural communication, 192
- Sheeraz M. &Hall K.(2017).‘No more full stop’: New indexicalities of linguistic hybridity in South Asian popular media. Paper presented at the 2nd IIUI‐UNCS International Conference Islamabad.
- 10.1111/josl.12364 · DOI
- 10.1177/0038038584018002001 · DOI
- Steele A. J., The Oxford handbook of language and sexuality
- Sutton L. A., 1995, Gender articulated: Language and the socially constructed self, 279
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199795437.003.0011 · DOI
- 10.1111/josl.12384 · DOI
- 10.1177/1461444817698776 · DOI
- 10.1080/1369801X.2020.1749709 · DOI
- 10.2307/3318063 · DOI
- 10.1558/genl.41607 · DOI · Paper page
- 10.1215/9780822394945 · DOI
- Zentella A. C., 1997, Growing up bilingual: Puerto Rican children in New York
- 10.1017/S0047404505050153 · DOI
- Zhang Q., 2018, Language and social change in China: Undoing commonness through cosmopolitan Mandarin
- 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190212926.013.45 · DOI
- Zimmerman D. H., 1975, Language and sex: Difference and dominance, 105
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Jones, L. (2025) · Journal of Sociolinguistics · doi:10.1111/josl.12676 · Cited by 5
Metadata
- Authors
- Hall, K.
- Affiliations
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hall, Kira
- ORCID
- Hall, Kira
- Venue
- Journal of Sociolinguistics
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2021-06
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 303-323
- ISSN
- 1360-6441 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9841
- OpenAlex
- W3181107782
- Cited by
- 16
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3
- FWCI
- 9.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- erratum (2021-10-06)
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Sociolinguistics (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies
- Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Linguistic Variation and Morphology
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Studies in Language
- Keywords
- Hinglish, sexual discourse, middle class, social class, sexual normativity, hybrid language, youth, vernacular language, colonial language policy, upward mobility, Delhi
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
