Ethnicity

Question 1

Ethnicity

Answer 1

A shared social identity consisting of cultural practices, language, beliefs and history. You have some control over your ethnic affiliation.

Question 2

The relationship between ethnicity and language

Answer 2

• Ethnicity and language have a complex relationship
• Things get more complicated when there are multiple linguistic influences at work, as urban centres become more culturally diverse and young people grow up exposed to many language varieties

Question 3

Where does diversity in Britain come from?

Answer 3

Romans
Vikings
French
Slave trade
Indians and Chinese due to the growth of the British Empire
Refugees from Eastern Europe after WW2

Question 4

Reasons for diversity in Britain

Answer 4

Invasion
Expansion
Empire
Commonwealth

Question 5

2021 Census in terms of Ethnicity

Answer 5

Across the 19 ethnic groups the largest percentage point increase was seen in the number of people identifying through the ‘white other white’ category where people were allowed to specify their ethnicity in writing.
Shows the true diversity of Britain

Question 6

Ethnicity is…

Answer 6

Dynamic

Question 7

Pidgin

Answer 7

A language that is invented by adults who speak different languages in order to communicate between themselves. It has historically happened most in colonial situations.

Question 8

Features of pidgins

Answer 8

• Have a short life
• Are a blend between the two languages
• Likely to follow the grammar of the dominant language
• Have a clear and definite use (e.g. to sell trade)
• Simple sentence structures
• Reduction or elimination of some syllables
• Uncomplicated clausal structure

Question 9

Creoles

Answer 9

A stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, with the result that they have features of natural languages that are normally missing from pidgins

Question 10

Do creoles still exist?

Answer 10

Many of the most know European-based creole languages are extinct however some still survive e.g. in the Caribbean

Question 11

An example of how a creole may start

Answer 11

Slaves from different parts of the world (put together as a tactic to prevent rebellion) used pidgins to communicate with one another and form an identity. This language would then be passed onto the new generation of children

Question 12

Creolisation

Answer 12

The process whereby a pidgin becomes a creole. This happens once children grow up using the pidgin as their first language

Question 13

How many languages are there in Papua New Guinea?

Answer 13

839 known languages. The most linguistically diverse country in the world.

Question 14

Heritage language

Answer 14

A language that is not the dominant language in the society in which somebody lives, yet is the one which is spoken at home

Perhaps heritage languages are used as a desire to assimilate, to maintain cultural roots or to communicate with older relatives

Question 15

Ethnolect

Answer 15

A variety of language that is associated with a particular social group. They are not fixed or restrictive, instead they are fluid.

Question 16

Ethnolinguistic repertoire

Answer 16

A set of linguistic resources that are available to be used by individual speakers in order to signal their ethnicity identity

Question 17

Viv Edwards (1986): Jamaican English in West Midlands

Answer 17

The West Indian language issue in British schools, language - the creole spoken by the students - was singled out as an important factor disadvantaging Caribbean children in British schools. The study cites negative attitudes of teachers towards any non-standard variety.

Question 18

Mark Sebba (1993): London Jamaican

Answer 18

Second generation speakers of creole in London in the 1980s were conscious that they could not pass for natives when in the Caribbean, but could nevertheless claim to be authentic ‘Black British’ by virtue of commanding both the local British vernacular and a local version of Jamaican cerole

Question 19

Janet Holmes (2013)

Answer 19

When people routinely use more than one language in daily life, they generally code-switch
Speakers don’t need to be proficient speakers of the second language to make use of specific words and phases that signal their ethnic identity to others

Question 20

Multi-ethnolect

Answer 20

A collection of linguistic resources combining features from a variety of languages within a multi-ethnic, multicultural context

Question 21

Does a multi-ethnolect belong to a particular ethnic group?

Answer 21

No, it is available to be used by everyone

Question 22

BBE

Answer 22

British Black English which is a form of many members of Britain’s Caribbean heritage community. This combines elements of standard British English with creole forms. This varies between regions within the UK

Question 23

MLE

Answer 23

Multicultural London English. This has been identified more recently by Cheshire et al (2008) predominantly among young people in London’s inner city. Now this appears to have spread further around the UK

Question 24

Does MLE have a uniform set of features?

Answer 24

No

Question 25

Vocabulary - MLE

Answer 25

‘Bare’ (a lot/very)
‘Beef’ (disagreement/conflict)

Question 26

Phonology - MLE

Answer 26

• The diphthong vowel sounds of words such as ‘face’ and ‘like’ pronounced as /fes/ and /la:k/
• Don’t drop the h’s (unlike Cockney) e.g. ‘I’m Heading to the House’
• TH stopping - ‘TH’ sound replaced with a /t/ or /d/ e.g. ‘Thing’ becomes ‘ting’ or ‘brother’ becomes ‘brudder’

Question 27

What is a phonological feature of MLE that is also apparent in the Cockney accent?

Answer 27

Th fronting

Question 28

Grammatical feature of MLE

Answer 28

‘Dem’ as a plural marker (as in ‘man dem’ for ‘men’ and ‘boy dem’ for ‘the police’)

Question 29

Discourse features of MLE

Answer 29

‘Innit’ as a tag question
‘You get me’ as a confirmation

Question 30

Gary Ives Bradford Study - 2014

Answer 30

• Bradford Asian English
• 95% Pakistani backgrounds
• Majority from Mirpuri - large city surrounded by villages and farmland
• A more specific ethnic community

Question 31

Quotes from the teenage boys in the Bradford study

Answer 31

‘We use language so people don’t know what we’re saying’
‘We are different to ‘freshies’ they’re born in Pakistan’
‘We mix punjabi and English’

Question 32

Teenage girl contrast to Bradford boys

Answer 32

A teenage girl of Indian origin in a contrasting study claimed to never mix English with her second language (Gujarati)
She felt this was because at school she is in the minority

Question 33

Teachers - Bradford study

Answer 33

Two teachers of Pakistani heritage confirmed that code-switching takes place and that Punjabi is included in their everyday talk. This is important due to the many students of Pakistani heritage in the school

Question 34

Gary Ives - London 2014

Answer 34

• Differed from Bradford
• A wide range of ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds
• % of EAL students is significantly above national average
• Highest proportion are from an Afro-Caribbean background

Question 35

Code mixing

Answer 35

The inclusion of words and phrases from one language in another

Question 36

Linguistic appropriacy

Answer 36

The way in which language choices reflect ideas about what is appropriate for any given context

Question 37

How have creoles historically been perceived?

Answer 37

‘Broken’ or ‘incorrect’ English

Question 38

What are ‘Jafaican’ (fake Jamaican) and ‘ghetto grammar’ said to be associated with?

Answer 38

Gangs, violence and poor education