Linguistic correlates of inter-ethnic contact

Ash, Sharon; Myhill, John

doi:10.1075/cilt.53.06ash

Cited by 79 publications

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“…However, we reiterate that the inherent subjectivity of ethnicity means that such externally defined measures, albeit salient to the researcher, may not be relevant to the informant. Other studies have further subcategorized speakers, either qualitatively or quantitatively, according to measures such as self-reported minority-language use and social networks (Ash & Myhill, 1986;Baugh, 1996:398;Dubois & Melançon, 1997;Edwards, 1992;Fought, 1999;Mendoza-Denton, 1997;Poplack, 1980), but in situations of racial division or bilingualism with a single pair of languages.…”

Section: Multilingualism and English In Torontomentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Outside of the U.S., race-based distinctions may not be salient or may be problematic (e.g., Le Page & Tabouret-Keller, 1985;Reaser, 2004;Walker & Meyerhoff, 2006). In addition, race-based ethnic groups are often less homogeneous linguistically than is assumed (Baugh, 1996:410, 412;Hinton & Pollock, 2000;Horvath & Sankoff, 1987:184;Labov, 1972:299) and in situations of frequent interethnic contact, it is not uncommon for racial groups to converge (e.g., Ash & Myhill, 1986;Wolfram, 1974) or to make use of linguistic features from the other group (e.g., "crossing" [Rampton, 1995]; cf. Cutler, 1997;Jacobs-Huey, 1997).…”

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confidence: 95%

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Ethnolects and the city: Ethnic orientation and linguistic variation in Toronto English

2010

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A B S T R A C TFollowing recent work that questions traditional social categories, this paper examines the role of ethnicity in conditioning linguistic variation. Reporting on a large-scale project in the multicultural context of Toronto, we argue for combining emic and etic approaches to social categorization. Focusing on the Chinese and Italian communities, our analysis of two sociolinguistic variables shows that speakers may vary in overall rate, but linguistic conditioning remains largely constant across and within ethnic groups. Whereas there is evidence for language transfer in the first generation, differences between generations suggest that transfer does not persist. Some speakers appear to use overall rates to express ethnic identity. Differences between communities may be explained in terms of different timelines of settlement and visible-minority status.A fundamental question of sociolinguistics is how social differences among speakers are reflected in their linguistic behavior. In the study of sociolinguistic variation and change, this question has been approached predominantly through "social grouping" (Horvath & Sankoff, 1987:179): that is, assign speakers to previously defined categories, and then correlate those categories with quantitative differences in linguistic behavior. A small set of social categories has been correlated with linguistic variables: sex, age, social class, and ethnicity. All of these categories featured in Labov's pioneering work on Martha's Vineyard (1963) and in New York City (1966) and have been replicated in many studies. As a result, we now have a good descriptive understanding of how each of these categories is implicated in linguistic variation: to Walker. We thank Walt Wolfram, whose invitation to participate in a panel discussion prompted Walker to start thinking systematically about ethnicity (Walker, 2001), our fieldworkers and research assistants for their hard work, Bryn Greer-Wootten for his advice on statistical techniques, and most of all the people of Toronto for sharing their time, reminiscences, opinions, and stories with us. Previous versions of different parts of this paper were presented between 2005 and 2007 at various international conferences. We thank the audiences for their comments and several anonymous reviewers for their feedback. We especially thank Barbara Johnstone for helping to clarify the discussion of the results. Any remaining errors are our own responsibility. Authors' names are listed alphabetically.

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Section: Multilingualism and English In Torontomentioning

confidence: 98%

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confidence: 95%

Ethnolects and the city: Ethnic orientation and linguistic variation in Toronto English

2010

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“…Also, a consistent asymmetry between white and black linguistic behaviours can be expected in the light of the historical status of African Americans as a socially marginalized group. Blacks may show more predisposition for convergence with whites than the other way around (as exemplified by Ash & Myhill 1986) 2 . I take the view here that the accuracy of these predictions should be tested against cases of language variation in comparable settings.…”

Section: Race/ethnicity and Its Linguistic Correlates: The Example Ofmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparability of the Black-White Divide in the American Speech Community and the Coloured-White Divide in the Afrikaans Speech Community

Stell

2012

American Speech

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This article attempts to place the discussion on the relationship between African American and European American vernacular Englishes within a broader context involving another speech community split along ethnic lines, namely South Africa's Afrikaans speakers. It specifically attempts to compare observations on the coloured-white linguistic divide within South Africa's Afrikaans speech community with those made on the black-white linguistic divide in the Uni ted States, wi th the aim of shedding light on the correl ati on between ethnicity and language variation. The article first presents ethnicity and its social and linguistic correlates, drawing on literature on AA(V)E and South Africa. It then identifies the social and linguistic specificities of the American English and Afrikaans speech communities. After presenting a range of grammatical variables and their comparability across both speech communities, it provides an overview first of the various trends of grammatical variation from a mainly variationist perspective, then of Afrikaans-English code-switching, which is treated as a phenomenon that correlates with grammatical variation. It finally attempts to answer the general question whether the U.S. black-white linguistic divide in South Africa's Afrikaans speech community can be referred to as complementary in the study of ethnicity and language variation.

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“…A third view developed later in the mid-1980s, proposing that AAE had significantly diverged historically from other dialects of American English and that divergence played a key role in producing the distinctiveness of contemporary AAE (Ash & Myhill 1986;Myhill & Harris 1986;Labov 1985Labov , 1987Labov , 1998Labov & Harris 1986;Bailey 1987;Bailey & Maynor 1987. Bailey & Maynor (1989) present one statement of this view, which is that, first, AAVE is diverging from white dialects, especially in the South and that, second, it was previously converging for many years, but that convergence as the major trend had ended (Bailey & Maynor 1989, p.13;see Spears 1992 for further details).…”

Section: The History Of Aae Revisitedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pidgins/Creoles and African American English

Spears

2008

The Handbook of Pidgin and Creole Studies

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Linguistic correlates of inter-ethnic contact

Cited by 79 publications

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Ethnolects and the city: Ethnic orientation and linguistic variation in Toronto English

Ethnolects and the city: Ethnic orientation and linguistic variation in Toronto English

Comparability of the Black-White Divide in the American Speech Community and the Coloured-White Divide in the Afrikaans Speech Community

Pidgins/Creoles and African American English

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