Language and Ethnicity Flashcards
Ethnicity refers to one’s family _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, linking one historically and culturally to places where one’s antecedents lived.
heritage
Pidgins and creoles are languages that draw their lexis largely from one language, but 3 things from several others. What are those 3 things?
Syntax, grammar and phonology
Many Pidgins and Creoles are based on European languages in areas that have been _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ by European nations.
Colonised
Communities start by creating a pidgin, which many people speak but which isn’t any community’s _ _ _ _ _ language.
First
If a pidgin survives, what does it become?
A creole
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ often provides the right conditions for the development of a pidgin.
Colonisation
If two speech communities meet and their need to communicate lasts long enough for it to be worthwhile, usually one of the languages will become _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and will be used by both communities.
Dominant
A creole is the first, second or third language of a community?
First
A pidgin is a language that has grown up between communities that do not have a mutually _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ language.
intelligible
What does intelligible mean?
Easily understood?
Pidgins most often serve the function of a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ or trading language
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is most usually concerned with what?
Routine communication between different communities e.g. buying and selling
A pidgin isn’t anyone’s _ _ __ _ _ language.
first
Once the pidgin is used as a speech communities first language, what does it become?
A creole
It was the policy of the colonial government to divide _ _ _ _ _ _ communities
Speech
The slaves developed pidgin languages in order to c _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ with each other.
Communicate
The _ _ _ _ _ of these languages tended to be drawn from English because it was the only language that they had in common.
lexis
The grammar and phonology was often drawn from _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and the original African languages of the workers.
English
Jamaican creole is also known as which other names?
Patwa or Patois
What is the prestige form in Jamaica?
Standard English
Because Standard English is the most prestige form in Jamaica, it means that, over time, Patwa is becoming increasingly like Standard English. What do we call this process?
Decreolisation
From the late 1940s, which people began to move to the UK, many speaking a language on the Creole continuum?
Caribbean people
From the 1960s, contact between Jamaican-British people and their white (usually working class) neighbours in school, at work and socially, lead to what?
‘Crossing’
What does the term ‘crossing’ mean?
This is when Jamaican-British people and their white (usually working class) neighoburs are exposed to both Jamaican English and Cockney and style shift between the two varieties.
Style shifting between Jamaican English and Cockney (ie crossing) began to gain which type of prestige?
Covert Prestige
Professor Ben Rampton (King’s London) says that: “Creole was widely seen as cool, tough and _ _ _ _ to use. It was associated with assertiveness, verbal resourcefulness, competence in heterosexual relationships and opposition to authority” (2010)
good
Professor Ben Rampton (King’s London) says that: “Creole was widely seen as cool, tough and good to use. It was associated with _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ , verbal resourcefulness, competence in heterosexual relationships and opposition to authority” (2010)
Assertiveness
Professor Ben Rampton (King’s London) says that: “Creole was widely seen as cool, tough and good to use. It was associated with assertiveness, verbal resourcefulness, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ in heterosexual relationships and opposition to authority” (2010)
Competence
Multicultural British English (MBE) also known as Multicultural London English, is a variety of English that combines elements of what?
Creole, Standard British English and influences from many other languages.
What does MBE stand for?
Multicultural British English
MBE is associated with Black British speakers but is actually used by?
A much wider demographic.
MBE is strongly associated with which people?
Younger people
MBE is different from other regional varieties as it doesn’t have u _ _ _ _ _ _ _ characteristics shared by its speakers
Uniform
MBE has a _ _ _ _ of characteristics from which speakers draw a number depending on age, ethnicity, region and identity.
Pool
The local _ _ _ _ _ _ population has an impact on the features used in MBE.
Ethnic
What does ‘bare’ mean in MBE?
Many (adjective) Very (adverb)
What does ‘beef’ mean in MBE?
Disagreement or conflict (noun)
What does ‘choong’ mean in MBE?
Attractive (adjective)
What does ‘ting’ mean in MBE?
Thing (noun) Girlfriend (noun)
What does ‘endz’ mean in MBE?
Neighbourhood (noun)
Is MBE h-dropping or non h-dropping?
Non h-dropping
One grammatical feature of MBE is when they say ‘mandem’ - What term can we use for this?
Dem as a plural marker
How would a speaker of MBE say ‘ask’?
a:ks
Man went to Hackney’ ‘Dem man gone’ ‘Us man leaving’ are all examples of what from MBE?
‘Man’ as a pronoun.
In MBE, the following sentence is common: ‘The woman who be in the office’ - What can you say about the verb ‘be’
Copular ‘Be’ used consistently before complements
What is Code Mixing?
Occasionally inserting words or phrases from one language into another.
What is Code Switching?
Moving from one language into another for a longer period.
Code switching and mixing can also be a way of signalling a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ with an interlocutor
Relationship
What is an ethnolect?
A variety of language related to a specific ethnic group. However, the term can be viewed negatively as it creates a division between ethnic minority groups and the dominant population.
What is style-shifting?
When monolingual speakers use different varieties of the same language, such as a regional or ethnic dialect and a more standard variety.
What is linguistic appropriacy?
Making decisions about what language is the right kind to use in different situations and contexts.
What is a heritage language?
A language that is not the dominant language in the society in which somebody lives, yet it is one that is spoken at home.
What is a multiethnolect?
The language of modern urban contexts, highlighting the multicultural nature of societies and the many competing influences on language.
What is a resistance identity?
An identity that goes against the mainstream culture, which John Pitts (2012) suggested young black English speakers were shifting towards.
What is Jafaican?
A derogatory media label responding to the inaccurate perception that MLE was a “fake” variety of Jamaican Patois.
Name three phonological features of MLE.
Shortening of long vowels, reversal of h-dropping, th-fronting, th-stopping, yod dropping
Give three examples of lexical items common in MLE.
Nang (cool), dag (uncool), creps (trainers), blud (brother), sket (slutty girls), whagwan (what’s up?), akh (male friend), bare (very/ a lot), allow it (stop), peng (attractive).
What did Gary Ives’ 2014 Bradford study investigate?
Code-switching between English and Punjabi among teenagers in Bradford.
What were the key findings of Ives’ Bradford study?
Code-switching was a conscious choice to show group identity and exclude others.
What criticisms can be made of Gary Ives’ Bradford study?
Small sample size and lack of variation within the participants.
What did Sharma’s 2011 study focus on?
How Punjabi-speaking Indians in West London pronounce English in different situations.
What were the findings of Sharma’s 2011 study?
Speakers used more Indian English variants when speaking with other Indian English speakers or when expressing personal or political outrage or cultural insult.
What did Drummond’s 2012 study investigate?
The pronunciation of -ing forms by Polish adults living in Manchester.
What were the key findings of Drummond’s 2012 study?
Female Polish speakers used the ‘in’ pronunciation more often than ‘ing’, and future plans affected pronunciation, signaling allegiance to one culture or another.
How can negative attitudes towards ethnolects affect people in the legal system?
Court stenographers/ those transcribing speech often misunderstand Black English, and their mistakes could affect people’s lives at crucial junctures.
What was Paul Kerswill’s research question regarding language and social evaluation?
Who gets to decide how a particular variety of English is evaluated? And how do varieties come to be socially indexed in a particular way?
What methods did Paul Kerswill use in his chapter “The objectification of ‘Jafaican’ : the discoursal embedding of Multicultural London English in the British media”?
Kerswill used a mixed-methods approach:
▪ A search of entries for ‘Jafaican’ in the Urban Dictionary
▪ Quantitative analysis using a commercial online database of English newspapers
▪ Discourse analysis of text samples from print and broadcast media
What did Kerswill’s analysis reveal about the use of the term ‘Jafaican’ over time?
The use of the term ‘Jafaican’ varies over time, first emerging in 2006, then falling out of use, but resurfacing in 2010 and 2011. The term is frequently collocated with the verb ‘dubbed’.
What range of attitudes towards Jafaican did Kerswill’s discourse analysis reveal in the media?
The discourse analysis reveals a range of ways of talking about Jafaican in the media, including:
▪ Negative: inappropriate in formal contexts; cultural threat to gender equality; bad language, challenging dress style and bad behaviour; hindering educational achievement and social mobility; a threat to the Cockney dialect
▪ Neutral/positive: a natural linguistic development; a sign of belonging: are you ‘in the know’?; a norm in the British music industry; ‘foreign’, but not (yet) a threat
