Pronunciation in Downstate New York (II)

Thomas, C. K.

doi:10.2307/486787

Cited by 3 publications

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“…It has been extensively studied and described in early dialectological works (Babbit, 1896;Hubbell, 1950;Thomas, 1942;inter alia). It has been extensively studied and described in early dialectological works (Babbit, 1896;Hubbell, 1950;Thomas, 1942;inter alia).…”

Section: Early Descriptions Of English In New York Citymentioning

confidence: 99%

New York City English and second generation Chinese Americans

Wong¹

2010

English Today

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Although Chinese Americans set up Chinese heritage language schools as early as 1848 to preserve the heritage language and to promote a sense of ethnic identity among their American-born children (Chao, 1997), there is strong evidence that language shift to English is taking place rather rapidly within the Chinese communities across the U.S. Data from the 2006 ACS show that while only 34.1 percent of first generation (i.e. foreign-born) Chinese Americans reported speaking ‘English very well’, the percentages rise dramatically for those who are American-born (i.e. second generation and beyond) or born overseas but arrived in the U.S. before the age of 16 (i.e. the 1.5 generation). 70.4 percent of the 1.5 generation and 93.8 percent of the American-born Chinese Americans reported speaking ‘English very well’. Additionally, only about 27.6 percent of the ABCs were estimated to speak their heritage language at home. Taken together, these estimates suggest that the rate of shift from Chinese to English is accelerating. Jia (2008) finds that even for first generation Chinese Americans, their Chinese language skills continue to decline with increasing English immersion. Rapid language shift to English means that many ABCs speak English as one of their native languages, if not the only one. This raises interesting sociolinguistic questions concerning the characteristics of the English spoken by ABCs and how ABCs utilize varieties of English to construct and negotiate differences with respect to each other and vis-à-vis the larger social structure.

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Section: Early Descriptions Of English In New York Citymentioning

confidence: 99%

New York City English and second generation Chinese Americans

Wong¹

2010

English Today

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“…These studies describe distinctive phonological features of NYCE, including non‐rhoticity (dropping the /r/ in words like fourth and floor ), the distinction between words like back and bag (the short‐ a split), and the raising of the vowel /ø/ in words like caught and coffee . Yet crucially, these studies sample only speakers of European descent (Babbit 1896; Thomas 1942, 1947; Frank 1948; Kurath 1949; Hubbell 1950; Westmore 1959; Kurah and McDavid 1961; Bronstein 1962; Berger 1968; Nunberg 1980). In part this practice began with an assumption that regional dialect patterns were set early on in the USA by English settlers, so that immigrant groups arriving pre‐1880, like the Irish and Germans, assimilated to local patterns within a few generations (Kurath 1949: 4).…”

Section: Part One: Erasing Ethnicity In Nycementioning

confidence: 99%

The Sociolinguistics of Ethnicity in New York City

Becker

Coggshall

2009

Language and Linguist. Compass

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This paper reviews the vast literature from sociolinguistics on ethnicity in New York City. Prior work falls into two camps: first, early work in dialectology on New York City English that often erased ethnic distinctions and presented a homogenous, white city; and second, later work investigating minority ethnic groups, often speakers of Languages Other than English. Here we summarize both threads of work, and suggest that the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which significantly changed the composition of immigrants in New York City, marks a turning point from work concerned with whites to that concerned with other ethnic groups. We also promote newer conceptions of ethnicity that view it as a fluid category concerned with the construction and/or destruction of boundaries. New York City's tremendous ethnolinguistic diversity makes it a unique site for explorations into ethnic identity practices.

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Williams’s Spring Strains

Raabe

1991

The Explicator

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Pronunciation in Downstate New York (II)

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

New York City English and second generation Chinese Americans

New York City English and second generation Chinese Americans

The Sociolinguistics of Ethnicity in New York City

Williams’s Spring Strains

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