True or False

2. True or False • Language is neither necessary nor sufficient condition for ethnic group membership. • The association of language with ethnic group affiliation is one of the more obvious relationships between language and culture. • It’s often difficult to separate ethnicity from other social factors……

3. So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity. I am my language. What does the above quote, from Gloria Anzaldua, reflect?

4. The quote above, is a clear and poetic expression of something that sociolinguistic research has established as a scientific fact: language plays a crucial role in the construction and maintenance of ethnic identity.

5. Due to the exercise of political power or some other factors like living outside the regions of the ethnic group, a group might lose its language or it might be banned of using it. How does an ethnic group respond to losing its language?

6. Ethnic groups often respond to this situation by using the majority language in a way which signals and actively constructs their ethnic identity. For groups where there are no identifying physical features to distinguish them from others in the society, these distinctive linguistic features may be an important remaining symbol of ethnicity once their ethnic language has disappeared. Food, religion, dress and a distinctive speech style are all ways that ethnic minorities may use to distinguish themselves from the majority group.

7. Ethnicity code-markers occur at levels of phonology, vocabulary, morphosyntax, and overall style, although in English grammatical markers are more likely to be associated with social class and educational level on a standard-nonstandard dimension.

8. Markers associated with ethnicity may include nonverbal features as well, including the side-to-side head movement of some speakers of Indian English, and the different eye contact patterns of several ethnic groups

9. Language resources in ethnic identity A “heritage” language Specific sociolinguistic features Code-switching Suprasegmental features Discourse features and language use. Using a “borrowed” variety

10. A language other than that of the dominant group can play an important role in defining a minority ethnic group. In places where a heritage language is dying out through language shift, revitalization efforts may be undertaken to prevent this loss, as has happened, for example, among the Maori in New Zealand, or with numerous Native-American groups in the USA.

11. The use of particular linguistic features within a variety can be a key element in the performance and recognition of ethnic identity, just as with any other aspect of identity, such as gender or social class. Some features may be so closely tied to ethnic identity that a single use of that feature marks a speaker as belonging to a particular group.

12. Code-switching can be an effective way to signal ethnic identity. In particular, code-switching allows the speaker to index multiple identities, for example an affiliation with a minority ethnic heritage, but also with the wider community.

13. For many ethnically related language varieties, suprasegmental features play a salient role, either in conjunction with segmental linguistic features or independently. African-Americans who speak a completely standard variety of English nonetheless use intonational patterns that reveal and index their ethnicity.

14. In addition to the structural elements of language, ways of using language may be part of the indexing and reproduction of ethnic identity, even though the more subtle pragmatic aspects may not be consciously recognized by in-group or out-group members. Elements such as turn-taking patterns or directness/indirectness in making requests may differ significantly between ethnic groups who are using the same (or a very similar) dialect.

15. Many ethnically diverse communities may encompass a wide range of languages and varieties in a relatively small space, especially in large urban centers. Sociolinguistic research has found that sometimes individuals or communities appropriate a code that originates outside the ethnic group for use in constructing their ethnic identity.

16. What are other characteristics that go to make up an ethnic identity?

17. Ancestral tradition rooted in a shared sense of peoplehood Distinctive value orientations and behavior patterns Group membership that is involuntary Influence of the group on the lives of its members

18. Language and Ethnicity Ethnicity can have a more striking relationship to language than other social factors such as gender, age, or social class. Discuss

19. A person’s ethnic identity might provide him/her with the gift of an entirely different language, for example, as when a Korean-American woman grows up speaking both English and Korean, while her European-American friends speak only English. • Or it may hand over to us a rich and different dialect, such as African-American English, the origin of Toni Morrison’s famous “five different verb tenses” • It can bring with it something that is neither a dialect nor a language but rather a linguistic process, such as code-switching (the technical term for something we may call “Spanglish” or “Chinglish”). • Our ethnic identity may be associated with differences in language use as well, such as how we end a conversation or what we consider to be a compliment.

20. The language or dialect associated with our ethnic identity may be the focus of criticism by others and leave us open to painful ridicule, prejudice, and stereotypes. It can also be a source of pride for us, a source of in-group humor, and a welcoming beacon of home and community.

21. “the ideological link between language and ethnicity is so potent that the use of linguistic practices associated with a given ethnic group may be sufficient for an individual to pass as a group member” Discuss

22. Dominican-Americans in Rhode Island treated competence in Spanish as a key factor that could include or exclude a person from certain ethnic categorizations. “Delilah,” who grew up in a predominantly African-American area, and who speaks African American English (AAE) as her primary linguistic code. Because of her use of AAE, Delilah was actually “re-raced” by other community members, and was actually described to the researcher as being “basically black”

23. Ethnicity and Race Are ethnicity and race synonymous?

24. They are actually not synonyms. However, they are both said to be socially constructed and not biologically determined. Since it is people, not genetics or nature, that insist on the significance of these categories in the classification of human beings. According to Waters (1990), people commonly associate ethnicity with distinctions based on national origin, language, religion, food and other cultural markers, and link race to distinctions drawn from physical appearance, such as skin colour, hair texture, eye shape and so on.

25. Does the perception of race as based on phenotypic features hold true always?

26. The phenotypic approach to racial classification is disrupted by: 1.Dominican Americans who construct identities not on the basis of phenotype but on the basis of language. Although others may perceive them in racial terms (i.e. 'Black'), Dominican Americans construct their identities along ethnolinguistic lines (i.e. 'Spanish'). 2. Mixed race people

27. Example 1 A girl born to Korean parents. When she was still an infant, she was adapted by an Italian family located in Italy. So, she grew up like any normal Italian girl. She shared with the community she lived in everything. She knew nothing about Korean history or culture. How would she be identified in regard to race? How would she be identified in regard to ethnicity?

28. Example 2 Obama was born in Hawaii, his father was born in Kenya and his mother was born in Kansas, her ancestors descended form England in the 19th century. How would he be identified in regard to race? How would he be identified in regard to ethnicity?

29. So, ethnicity is culture, traditions, religious beliefs and speaking the same language. It doesn’t matter the colour of one’s skin, whether s/he has a white mother and a black father. If s/he is raised with the food, music and traditional up bringing of the African American culture, his/her ethnicity is African American even if his/her skin is white.

30. Are ethnicity and race static or dynamic?

31. Even in the most seemingly homogeneous and stable communities, concepts of ethnicity and race do not stand still. Rather, because of past and present mixing, meeting, moving and imagining across national and cultural boundaries, ethnicity and race are more aptly described as ongoing, dynamic processes.

32. Would you call yourself ethnic? Why? Or why not?