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Cited by 10Linguistic and Sociocultural StudiesLinguistic Variation and MorphologyMultilingual Education and Policy

Mediated Bricolage and the Sociolinguistic Co-Construction of No Sabo Kids

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Callesano, Salvatore·2023·Languages
DOI 10.3390/languages8030206
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Abstract

Sociolinguistic styles and the resultant ascribed identities are understood as the product of simultaneous variables, leading to the notion of bricolage, or the co-occurrence of variables and their collective indexical meanings. Relatively little attention has been paid to these processes as they manifest on social media platforms. The goal of the current paper is to understand which linguistic and thematic features co-occur in the online production of the no sabo kid style and identity, which manifests as a form of linguistic discrimination towards U.S. Latinx youth. “Hashtag communities” were used to locate posts about no sabo kids on TikTok (N = 95), and videos were automatically and manually coded for salient linguistic and discursive resources in the online no sabo kid community. The results show the co-occurrence of code-switching and phonological and lexical variation, alongside discursive themes, namely ‘proficiency’, ‘ethnicity’, and ‘performative lexical gaps’. I argue that the no sabo kid hashtag community is a mediated manifestation of ideologies surrounding U.S. Latinx bilinguals, where a supposed lack of proficiency in Spanish and grammatical blending of Spanish and English index inauthentic ethnicity. Mediated instantiations of sociolinguistic styles shed light on how linguistic features become enregistered through multimodality and semiotic bricolage.

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  • In the United States, 'no sabo' has taken on a pejorative meaning within Latinx communities, used to mock those with low Spanish proficiency.

    “In the United States, no sabo has taken on a pejorative meaning within Latinx communities, used to mock those with low Spanish proficiency.”

    From Sounds Like Politics: Cardi B and the Discourse of Español Ratatá (2026) · cites this paper as Callesano, 2023

    The Introduction says that U.S. Latinx heritage speakers’ use of forms associated with the “no sabo kid” persona can draw ridicule and judgments of lacking Spanish proficiency. The Discussion qualifies that this is a *supposed* lack of proficiency: the linguistic features being mocked do not necessarily indicate low Spanish ability. The claim is supported as a description of a pejorative label, but not as a statement that its targets actually have low proficiency. (LLM, conf=0.83)

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Authors
Callesano, S.
Affiliations
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
Corresponding author
Callesano, Salvatore
ORCID
Callesano, Salvatore
Venue
Languages
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2023-08-31
Volume
8
Issue
3
Pages
206
ISSN
2226-471X (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3390/languages8030206
OpenAlex
W4386324527
Cited by
10
References
3
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 1
FWCI
8.56
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Languages (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies
  • Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Linguistic Variation and Morphology
  • Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Multilingual Education and Policy
Keywords
bricolage, language discrimination, code-switching, phonological variation, lexical variation, TikTok, bilingualism, language proficiency, ethnicity, multimodality, ascribed identity, language ideology

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