Urban Language Practices Online? Multilingualism among German-Namibians in Computer-Mediated Communication

Urban areas are an interesting starting point for research on multilingualism since they constitute ‘sociolinguistic systems in their own right’. This chapter strives to extend the focus on urban multilingual practices by applying them to rural multilingualism. It focuses on Networks of Exchange (NoE), in which multilingual individuals of both urban and rural backgrounds meet. NoE is usually used in the context of trade history and focuses on the ‘the rich networks of people, goods, and ideas that were exchanged’ across continents and oceans throughout history. In some cases, these exchanges led to the evolution of new, multilingual societies, especially during the colonial era. The German-speaking minority in Namibia is just one of many examples of such a community. The Republic of Namibia is essentially rural in nature. The capital of Windhoek is the administrative, political and cultural centre of Namibia. The chapter focuses on four Namibian users who express intra-individual language variation to different degrees.