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Language and ethnicity - Coggle Diagram
Language and ethnicity
Sarah Thomason - Language contact and substratum study
Thomsons work on the substratum theory provides scientific framework for how contact languages (eg MLE/jamaican patois) actually form. Thomason explains the mechanisms of how the languages actually blend.
Thomason says change often occurs through language shift with a substratum. this happens when a group of speakers move from their native language (substratum) to a new dominant language (superstratum).
Superstratum
(target) - The dominant/prestige language in a society eg SE in the UK.
Substratum
(influencer) - The language of the migrant/'lower class' group eg Punjabi/Jamaican patois.
-
Result
(interference) - As the substratum group learns the superstratum, they change it by mapping their own grammar, sounds, and rhythms into the new language. overtime these 'errors' become permanent dialect features.
Key features of substratum influence -
Thomason argues that a substratum doesn't just change words, it changes the 'DNA' of the language.
Phonological influence
- Borrowing the sounds eg in MLE the 'th' sound is often replaced with 'd' or 't' as many African and Caribbean substratum languages don't have the 'th' sound.
Syntactic influence
- Borrowing the grammar structure eg 'man' pronoun in MEYD.
Prosodic influence
- borrowing 'rhythm' eg 'sing-song'/staccato rhythm of MLE/MEYD as a result of syllable timed substratum languages influencing the stress timed nature of English.
Essay use
Ethnicity - MLE isn't 'broken English' but a substratum shift. the speakers are creating a new variety.
Diversity - Challenges the idea that languages are levelling (kerswill). as long as we have migration, we will have substratum interference, leading to new dialects.
Paul Kerswill - Dialect levelling and Multicultural varieties
Dialect levelling
- The process in which distinct local features and reduced as people from different areas interact, leading to a more uniform way of speaking. (linked to Kerswills 1996 Milton Keynes study.)
Example - The reduced use and disappearance of Cockney
In London, new varieties of English are forming Eg - MLE, Multicultural London English
Koiné (Koinetisation)
- A stable natural language that arises from contact between different dialects that happens in disadvantages areas, meaning high social density and language contact.
MLE - a blend of Cockney, Jamaican Patois, West African English, and South Asian influences spoken in inner city London
Age specific
- Primarily by young people of all ethnic backgrounds
Social class
- Working class variety
Opinions
- Older people and media view this change and 'broken english' but Kerswill defends it as a sophisticated and rule governed dialect.
Mark Sebba - London Jamaica study
Focused on second generation caribbean teens in london who used a London Jamaican hybridLondon Jamaican is a contact variety of 3 layers
Cockney/London English (LE) - Local regional dialect
Standard english SE - for formal or school contexts
Jamaican creole (patois) - inherited from (grand)parents and adaped for London
Evidence - Catford Girl's Posse (code switching), shows sophistication of speech
Identity negotiation
- LE for general conversations, patois for 'punchlines', storng emotions, or to signal toughness/authenticity
Contextual awareness
- they instinctively knew which code was appropriate for the context
Group identity
- switching to patois was used to create a sense of identity (in-group solidarity), against school/authority (out-group)
Creole features acted as a resistance to SE: Covert prestige
Shows greater linguistic resource and repetoire
Sue fox - Multi ethnic youth dialect study
Her study shows how London Jamaican dialect features are becoming a social variety used by a variety of spekers, regardless of heritage.
Study was conducted in Tower Hamlets - London, with a high percentage of people with bangladeshi backgrounds, and a history of cockney influence.
Findings:
White teens were using the same liguistic features as their bangladeshi and black peers, Multicultural english
The biggest predictor of speech was their social networks, people with more multicultural friendships used MEYD fetures more frequently
MEYD/MLE was replacing cockney features eg. Man pronoun - 'Man' as a 1st person singular pronoun, 'This is [speaker]' quotative (replacing 'i said' or 'he was like', Vowel shifts - 'H' sounds werw kept, but vowels moved towards a monophthongal sound (flatter vowels)
Code switching
- Study participants showed a high level of bidialectism
Speakers 'perform' MEYD to signal 'street' identity, but switched to standard london varieties when talking to teachers/formal settings
Solidarity - MEYD acts as a social glue, the use of a multicultural dialect transcends boundaries and creates a unified identity
Implications -
The creation of a common culture in the diverse youth population of London has formed ideal conditions for the growth of variety
high skilled dialect, it's sophisticated, and takes skill to use. Contrasts ideas of new forms of language being 'dumbed down'
Gary Ives - Bradford study
Ives looks at how teens in Bradford (West Yorkshire) use language to create a specific exclusionary ethnic identity.
He interviewed 8 teen boys of a Pakistani background. he aimed to find out why they used a mix of english and punjabi, despite being fluent in both.
The Bradford boys used language to highlight their specific heritage rather than using a variety like in London that is used by all ethnicities.
Secret language
- The boys said they used punjabi to 'talk about people' and 'have a laugh', without being understood by 'white people'/'freshies' (people recently moved from Pakistan). This included punjabi swear words and taboo terms.
Identity and context
- This way of speaking was only used with their peers, not at home with their parents.
The 'freshie' distinction
- the boys used
code mixing
to distance themselves from the freshies (who they saw as uncool/traditional) and from 'white' culture. it was a third identity for them - British-Asian.
This study demonstrates how young people are linguistic chameleons:
Conscious choice - The boys were aware of their language a a house. one boy said "it's all about our group"
Semantic narrowing - They took words from punjabi and gave them specific modern meanings within their Bradford context.
identity performance - This study supports the idea that we use language to perform our identity and who we are.
Rob Drummond - Multicultural British English research
MBE - Multicultural British English. This term is used by Drummond to desire how MLE (London) has evolved into a national phenomenon found in nearly every major UK city eg Manchester, Leeds.
Drummonds MBE research tackles the 'uniformity vs diversity' debate - is the whole country starting to sound the same, or are we just creating a new type of diversity?
Beyond region - Drummonds research highlights that MBE is not about where you're from, but who you want to be.
Identity
- Drummond explains that while teens use global features (eg Jamaican influenced vocab) they still keep their local accent (eg Manchester).
Dialect levelling vs dialect innovation
- in contrast to the view that dialects are 'levelling', Drummond argues that MBE is a form of innovation. It's a new variety that is replacing traditional regional dialects.
Languge and social exclusion - Drummond worked with young people in Pupil referral units (PRUs) in Manchester. He analysed how often speakers used different pronunciations of the 'ing' at the end of words.
[ɪŋ] standard k
ing
sound
[ɪn] non standard alveolar 'walk
in
' sound
[ɪŋk] velar nasal /ŋ/ with plosive /k/ 'somethingk' sound. common in MLE and MBE
Identity performance findings - Drummond found that the way teens spoke had nothing to do with their ability, and everything to do with their future intentions and heritage.
Speakers with Caribbean heritage/ people who identified with urban youth culture, were more likely to use the [ɪŋk] pronunciation.
Teens who felt rejected by the school system used the ostensible standard forms, which is an example of covert prestige.
These speakers could dial up/down their Manchester urban accent depending on who they were talking to (like Sebba's Catford girls posse/accommodation theory)
Implications - Drummond proves that MLE isn't just a London thing, and it has instead evolved into an MBE, appearing in other major cities.
'Slang' defence
- Drummond is a critic of the term 'slang' when used to dismiss youth speech. he argues MBE is a complex rule governed vary that requires linguistic skill to navigate.
Identity over region
- two teen living on the same Manchester street could sound different based on social aspirations.
He found that MBE was a way of
performing resistance
. if they felt excluded by the SE world of education and government, they used MBE to signal loyalty to a community that accepted them.