Ethnic orientation and linguistic variation in toronto english volume 22 issue 1 michol f. The study of language variation in the american south is a thriving linguistic industry. No other region hosts a biannual meeting in which the majority of papers focus on topics related to language within its boundaries southeastern conference on linguistics as well as an international decennial conference dedicated to these issues. National association for the education of young children 1509 16th street, n. Language variation is a core concept in sociolinguistics. But while the diversity of variation is great, there seem to be boundaries on variation speakers do not generally make drastic alterations in sentence word order or use novel sounds. Walker skip to main content accessibility help we use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Transfer from the first language processes of second language learning 12. For example, when developing a writing system it is desireable for it to be useful and acceptable to the largest number of speakers of the language. Just as regional variation of language can provide a lot of information about. Endangered languages, ethnicity, identity and politics.
Ethnic identity and linguistic variation in a multicultural. Language and ethnicity 3 7 ethnic varieties of english pennsylvania dutch the socalled pennsylvania dutch have nothing to do with holland, the netherlands, or the dutch language. Furthermore, if variation in inherent to language, labov postulated that variation could and should be represented as part of the structure of a language, not extraneous to it. Unfortunately, some people are unaware of various social and regional dialects, and different varieties of english in. Good variants are typically believed to be characterized by logical superiority or venerability, or both. Many of the practical illustrations for the correlation between ethnicity and language variation therein come from north america, and more specifically from studies devoted to african american english aae. The basic premise of sociolinguistics is that language is variable and everchanging. By the same token, the study of regional dialects benefits from the precise structural description of forms provided by linguistic study.
The relation between language and ethnicity has long interested sociolinguists and social psychologists alike. Sociolinguists investigate whether this linguistic variation can be attributed to differences in the social characteristics of the speakers using the language, but also investigate whether elements of the surrounding linguistic context promote or inhibit the usage of certain structures. Tutsi and hutu ethnic groups in burundi and rwanda share the same language. These include links with qualitative methods for studying language variation and the use of variable data to illuminate studies of language contact. A study of bilingualism, ethnic identity, and ethnic attitudes by paul lamy, b. Language variation and change linguistic society of america. Language and the afrikaans speech community from past to present raceethnicity and linguistic variation building a corpus of spoken afrikaans methodology for corpus analysis grammatical variation codeswitching a reconstructed picture of language variation in the afrikaans speech community and its implications. Rather, it is varied and inconsistent for both the individual user and within and among groups of speakers who use the same language. Ethnicity the handbook of language variation and change. May 05, 2015 it remains true, however, that 8 language may be an important or even essential concomitant of ethnicgroup membership.
Ethnic background and genetic variation in the evaluation of. Meaning, variation, and ethnicity in australian english. Ethnic varieties of english pennsylvania dutch the sosocalled pennsylvania dutch have nothing to do with holland, the netherlands, or the dutch language. Research on changes in progress in ethnic minority communities. The san francisco bay area has long been characterized by an ethnically diverse population. It remains true, however, that 8 language may be an important or even essential concomitant of ethnicgroup membership. Languages vary between ethnic groups, social situations, and specific locations.
A dissertation submitted to the school of graduate studies in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree doctor of philosophy. A number of recent studies of language variation have neatly brought together models from these distinct vantage points in insightful and informative ways. Variation between languages, dialects, and speakers is known as interspeaker variation. A dissertation submitted to the school of graduate studies in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree doctor of philosophy mcmaster university february 197 6 0 paul lamy 1976. Language variation 1 chapter 7 language and variation 7.
Language variation sociolinguistics social psychology context abstract in the interest of promoting discussion between sociolinguists and social psychologists, this paper offers a social psychological perspective on some of the themes surrounding ethnicity and language that are raised by the authors of the papers in this issue. Since the time of the ohlone majority see margolin 1978, the san francisco peninsula has been colonized and occupied by spain, england, mexico, the republic of california, and the united states. Between the speakers of any language there is variation in the way that they use their language. Within southampton, there is a wide variation in ethnic diversity.
That is, because the varied heterogeneous forms occurring in natural language are regularly distributed across speakers, this structured heterogeneity must. The aim of its endeavours was not only to regulate the relations between ethnic and language groups in the country but also to manipulate the groups through their creation, merging, separation, transformation or removal. Sociolinguistics being a quickly developing branch of linguistics, explores the individual and social difference of language. They originally came from german speaking areas of europe and speak or used to speak a dialect of german they refer to as deitsch. Ethnic background and genetic variation in the evaluation. The english language varies on individual, regional, national and global levels. Language and ethnicity angela reves language and ethnicity research in education is motivated by several con cerns. The ethnic pattern does not actually denote a typical sociolinguistic pattern such as the class pattern or gender pattern but it refers more generally to the characteristic use of language which is influenced by the ethnic background of a speaker a formulation of the ethnic pattern. Sociolinguistics and the study of variation and change when you start to study any language, it immediately becomes clear that it contains a. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. This variation is demonstrated by linguistic differences in terms of sound phonetics and structure grammar.
It finally attempts to answer the general question whether the u. An ethnic dialect is the distinct form of a language spoken by members of a particular ethnic group. Linguistic characteristics may be the most defining criteria for ethnicgroup membership. Language variation and change ws 201415, campus essen raymond hickey, english linguistics. Therefore, it is important to identify the most unifying features of the language.
Unfortunately, some people are unaware of various social and regional dialects, and different varieties of english in the world. From labovs study, people can determine that variation is a characteristic of language that. The methods that are used in this study to investigate gender and ethnic differences in. The second edition of this hugely successful textbook provides comprehensive coverage of a wide range of topics in theoretical and applied linguistics.
Language and ethnicity by carmen fought cambridge core. New perspectives on linguistic variation and ethnic identity. Language and ethnicity research in education is motivated by several con cerns. King was eightyone years old when i interviewed him at his home in 1981. Ethnic and language variation in patientreported outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis patricia p. For practical purposes, he jettisoned culture from the concept of ethnicity. Ethnicgroup differentiation in a mixed community, then, is a particular type of social differentiation, and as such, will often have. Sex and gender differences in variation penelope eckert university of illinois, chicago and institute for research on learning, palo alto abstract speakers sex has emerge ads one of the most important social factor in thse quantitative study of phonological variation. The interaction of language and ethnic identity has long preoccupied the study of language variation and change labov 1963, but such studies have tended to define ethnicity using external characteristics, such as race, religion or lineal descent. Explaining intergenerational variations in english language. Ethnic dialects are ingroup ways of speaking the majority language an introduction to sociolinguistics, 2015. Written by leading academics in the field, this text offers a firm grounding in linguistics and includes engaging insights into current research. Shanghai language arab ethnic group has, for example, arab, oman, and yemen language multi ethnic language group there are many ethnic groups use the same language batak, sunda, jawa, and other ethnic groups in. Project muse language variation in the american south.
It covers all the key areas of linguistic analysis, including phonetics, morphology, semantics and. Analysis using wave 1 data from the children of immigrants long. Language variation and change, 1 1989, 245267 printe. A fundamental question of sociolinguistics is how social differences. Indonesia use indonesian besides their local language. New perspectives on linguistic variation and ethnic. In terms of ethnicity based speech differences, it is. Health occupations 20112015 3 it has been shown to improve patient satisfaction, patientclinician communication, and access to care for patient belonging to minority populations. I came to learn that these differences and discourses were intimately tied together and recycled in australia, as it was a topic that invariably arose in sociolinguistics class discussions around language variation. It discusses variation and change, focusing on communities within the usa, where a majority studies have been done.
The idea of an ethnolect relates to linguistic variation and to ethnic identity. Language change inevitably leads to variation, and variation within a speech community often leads to social valuation of particular features as good or bad. In this chapter, we shift our focus from language variation across different groups of speakers to variation in the speech of individual speakers, or language style. How language changes due to social factors in society. Decades of studying language variation and change in minority ethnic groups has. They originally came from german speaking areas of europe and speak or used to. What is known and recorded in the ethnologue, or other language analysis sources, varies in details and clarity, or even accuracy, from one case to another usually in groupings of regional or ethnic clusters. Explaining intergenerational variations in english language acquisition and ethnic language attrition meenakshi parameshwaran abstract this paper aims to improve contemporary understanding of intergenerational variation in english l2 and ethnic language l1 proficiency. Some sociolinguists are chiefly interested in ethnic minority achieve ment in the classroom, exploring the role of language in educational success and failure. This was done by means of nomenclature, border change, ethnic propaganda and, of course, language policy. Complete with discussion questions and a glossary, language and ethnicity will be welcomed by students and researchers in sociolinguistics, as well as anybody interested in ethnic issues, language and education, interethnic communication. Language and ethnicity 4 10 characteristics of an ethnic variety lexical differences from standard english phonological differences vowels, intonation isolated grammatical features conversational style 11 where do these characteristics come from.
Complete with discussion questions and a glossary, language and ethnicity will be welcomed by students and researchers in sociolinguistics, as well as anybody interested in ethnic issues, language and education, inter ethnic communication, and the relationship between language and identity. The term linguistic variation or simply variation refers to regional, social, or contextual differences in the ways that a particular language is used. According to joshua fishman, a sociologist of language, the processes of language standardization and nationalism in modern societies make links between language and ethnicity salient to users. Others are primarily concerned with ethnic dialects.
The applied structural features identify ones ethnic variety. Pragmatic features of aave u sounding, playing the dozens u rapping u signifying labov 1972 vl language variation and change prof. The concept of language variation is central in sociolinguistics. There is a relationship between a speakers ethnic group membership and the use of language. Explaining intergenerational variations in english.
A position statement of the national association for the. These two parameters, along which variation occurs, are in principle independent of each other, although we shall see that there are ways in. A person of african descent, born in and a citizen of the united states, whose u. This article demonstrates the importance of investigating language variation and change both within and across ethnic groups, especially those that have been relatively insular historically. Variations in linguistic patterns are argued to be influenced by speakers ethnicities, and, in a reciprocal fashion, language use has been suggested to create and substantiate ethnicity. Ethnic orientation and linguistic variation in toronto english article pdf available in language variation and change 2201. Research has shown that variation in speech style is just as pervasive as regional, socialclass, ethnic, and genderbased language variation.
The effects of gender and ethnicity on language use. The focus is on the variable patterning of ay in the variety of english spoken by the lumbee indians in triethnic robeson county, north carolina. According to joshua fishman, a sociologist of language, the processes of language standardization and nationalism in modern societies make links between language and ethnicity salient to users ethnicity can affect linguistic variation in ways that reflect a social dimension of language usage. By applying specific structural features a speakers linguistic variety can be used to express this speakers ethnic identity. In this sense, a dialect is regarded as a geographical variety of a language, spoken in a certain area, and being different in some linguistic items from. Katz, phd, 1 jennifer barton, md, 2 laura trupin, mph, 1 gabriela schmajuk, md, ms, 1 jinoos yazdany, md, mph, 1 pedro j. Ronald wardhaugh and janet fuller point out that ethnic dialects are not simply foreign accents of the majority language, as many of their speakers may well be monolingual speakers of the majority language. For example, africanamerican men have among the highest incidence of prostate cancer, while japanese men living in japan have the lowest incidence.
He couldnt remember for sure how far hed managed to go in school, but since his account of his school days. The main fulani of west africa are dark blue on the map. Ethnicity and sociolinguistic variation in san francisco. It covers all the key areas of linguistic analysis, including phonetics, morphology.
For him, ethnic boundaries were psychological boundaries. The 2018 annual census of school pupils in southampton revealed that 37. Languages vary from one place to another, from one social group to another, and from one situation to another, and these are the. There might be only slight variations between forms of a language such as minor pronunciations of words or a slight changes of grammatical structure that do not inhibit. Pennsylvania dutch the socalled pennsylvania dutch have nothing to do with holland, the netherlands, or the dutch language.
Others are primarily concerned with ethnic dialects and ethnic minority languages, examining the role of schools in valuing and supporting linguistic varieties. Strong ethnic differences have also been observed in breast cancer risk. White and coloured identities in afrikaansenglish codeswitching gerald stell abstract the afrikaans speech community is characterized by a longstanding rift between whites and coloureds, and is for a large part bilingual, with english being increasingly integrated in its stylistic repertoire. Language and ethnic group sociolinguistics ethnic groups. A white man born in bluffton, south carolina, he was brought over to the island at the age of two. For inclusion, the studies must have met all the following criteria. The study of language variation guides language development activities.
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