<b> <i>Fuhgeddaboudit shugah!</i> </b> Social meanings of the New York City dialect in the semiotic landscape

Abstract This paper examines multilectal writing in New York City as part of the larger phenomenon of multilingual, multilectal and multiscriptal writing. It focuses on the written representation of two enregistered phonological features (i.e. non-rhoticity and the raised back vowel [ɔ]) as well as colloquial expressions that index the imagined speech style of many New Yorkers. It explores how these forms are disseminated across a range of public ‘language objects’ and how they are interpreted by people who encounter them. Linguistically and culturally, New York City and its inhabitants exist in an imaginary that is heavily shaped and mediated by televised shows, movies, novels, and other forms of artistic production. Recent work on public displays of language in New York City illustrates the different stances, alignments, cultures and languages indexed in signage (old school vs. new school; Jewish and Italian immigrants vs. more recent arrivals like Latinos, Asians, etc. and their respective languages). This paper explores the material extension and commodification of these cultural and linguistic signifiers across a corpus of publicly consumable objects/artifacts including a road sign, a t-shirt, and stoneware souvenirs: a coffee mug, a sugar bowl, and a set of salt and pepper shakers. These artifacts index ever-shifting sets of meanings and ideologies they animate about New Yorkers and New York City English.