'Ethnicity and language Essay\r'

'1. heathenishity Ethnicity is non a trig-cut term. It usually describes someone’s racial or ethnicalal background but has a whole multitude of some another(prenominal) connotations connected with shape upance, dress, food, lifestyle etc. The ethnic majority in a particular go under argon, not necessarily those with the largest rime, but those with social and policy-making power. It is also the case that lots terms describing run argon fairly meaningless. People from the ‘British rush’ for illustration originate from many other cultures and countries, depending on how far back you trace their family trees.\r\n2. Prejudiced linguistic process Language chiffonier be applyd to begin certain(a) ethnic separates appear to be outsiders, or contrasting from the ethnic majority. Markedness It is often assumed that immigrants, and populate from ethnic minorities, must fit in with the shipway and traditions of the ethnic majority. When this happens, the ethnic identity of the majority begins to appear normal and invisible, whilst that of the minority appears, strange, worthy of mention and marked.\r\nWe often give away in the media that hatful’ ethnicity is however mentioned when they are not white. So, we hear things like â€Å"the murdered glum teenager Steven Lawrence” even in instances where the description of ethnicity is irrelevant. disconfirming labelling People are often labelled accord to their colour, race or ethnicity. The problem with such labels is first that they may stop us seeing other aspects of the person as we are focussed on the attribute that the label describes. The second problem is that precise(prenominal) often these labels are associated with negative stereo characters.\r\nWe often find that the most marginalized groups in our society prolong the largest numbers of offensive terms to describe them. In addition, the media runs comparatively few stories about those from ethnic mi norities, and those that are include tend to reinforce the negative stereotypes by beingness about crime or disorder. 3. Marking Ethnic Identity Language can also be used as a powerful target of ethnic identity. The language that we articulate, and how we speak it, shows the ethnic group to which we believe we belong and claim solidarity with. British disastrous English People of West Indian and African Caribbean origin in England use many different\r\nvarieties depending on where about they live and how long their families have been in Britain. Those born in Britain usually speak a diverseness of English and also a commixture of Jamaican Creole, slamn as Patois. linguistic features of Patois ?Lexical items (lick (hit), kenge (weak), bex (angry) ? delectation of [? ] and [? ] in couch of [? ] and [? ] e. g. [t? n] for [?? n] ?Plural forms without /s/ suffix (e. g. many cow) ?Verbs not marked for tense (walk in place of walked) ? modify pronouns ([mi] for I, me, my and [dem] for they, them and their) ? apply of ‘fi’ in place of ‘to’ before infinitives.\r\nAfrican American coarse English In the USA, the clean-cut languages of people of African American origin disappeared centuries ago. Nevertheless, a distinct variety of English, called African American Vernacular English (AAVE), has developed which acts as a symbol of ethnicity. AAVE is most often heard in cities in the North of the states. lingual features of AAVE ?Absence of standard copula be (e. g. ‘she very nice’, ‘that my book’) ?Use of copula be to signal recurring actions (‘she be at school on weekdays’) ?Multiple negation (‘I don’t want none’)?\r\nconcordant cluster simplification (‘aks in place of asks’) ? existential it (where standard English has ‘there’, ‘it’s a son’ for ‘there’s a boy’) Maori English In New Zealand, it is not clear if a Maori dialect of English actually exists. What is certain is that the features listed below occur more(prenominal) than often in the speech of Maoris than Pakeha (non-Polynesian New Zealanders, usually of European origin) Linguistic features of Maori English ?Use of [? ] and [? ] in place of [? ] and [? ] e. g. [t? n] for [?? n] ?Use of vocabulary items such as kia ora (greeting) and kuia (old woman)?\r\nVernacular verb forms (walk for walked) ? benefaction tense forms with /s/ ‘I sees you’, ‘we gets home’) 4. brotherly Networks Social intercommunicates can help us commiserate speech patterns as the language and variety we use is influenced by the people we spend time with. You can draw a simple social profits by considering the four or five people you speak to most often and drawing lines from their name calling to yours on a map. If any of those people know each other independently of you, connect them with lines (preferably of a different colour) too.\r\nThen add their two or three best friends, and so on.e. g. Tom Richard shilling Barbara Sandy Dave Features of social networks Density Density refers to whether members of a person’s network are in touch with each other separately. In the example above, only Richard and Bob know each other independently of Tom so his network is not a dense one. Plexity Plexity refers to the type of transactions that we are involved in with other people. If, for example, Tom only ever plays squash with Barbara, the relationship would be considered a uniplex one. If however, Tom and Barbara lived, worked and socialised together it would be a multiplex one.\r\nLanguage and Networks The language or variety we use is influenced by the people we blab out to and what we talk to them about. We may change the language or variety we are using depending on which part of our network we are currently interacting with. For example, we may be more formal at work than at home. This type of language/ variety shift is probably more in all likelihood if our social network is not very dense and our relations tend to be uniplex. If our networks are dense and multiplex, the whole network is more likely to use the use the same language or variety.\r\n'