Ethnicity Flashcards
(40 cards)
1
Q
Acts of Linguistic Identity
A
- With every speech act all individuals perform, to a greater or less extent, an ‘act of identity’, revealing through their personal use of language their sense of social and ethnic solidarity or difference.
- At the same time people also have powerful (if unconscious stereotypes about the norms and standards of their own language and those of others - often at variance with observable behaviour.
2
Q
Migration
A
- With the large scale arrival of Caribbean people in the UK from the late 1940s onwards (they were encouraged and asked to come as a postwar drive which needed healthy workers for the UK’s growing public services -it was known at the time as The Wind Rush) new and exciting forms of English started to be heard in may urban areas.
- The creole spoken by many Jamaicans is over 500 years old and is inextricably linked with the slave trade. It is made up of both English and the various West African languages that were spoken by slaves
3
Q
How Aspects of Jamaican English became
Embedded in Our Culture.
A
In the 1960s and 1970s, the contact between Jamaican-English young people and their white working class neighbours at work and at school, and the increasing number of mixed race relationships meant that people of different ethnic backgrounds were exposed to each other’s varieties of English.
A degree of ‘crossing’ was evident e.g. a young white person might use more traditional language with some peers groups but ‘shift into a lexis more influenced by Jamaican English when with black friends
4
Q
Non-Standard Use of the Verbs
A
The verb ‘to be’ can be used in a non-standard way:
* She be pretty
* He be wrong
Or, the use of the verb ‘to be’ is omitted altogether:
* She dreaming:
* He gone
Also,verbs are not always marked for tense.
* Him tell me dat yesterday
* She think he a super star
5
Q
How Creole was viewed
A
- Ben Rampton ‘Creole was widely seen as cool, tough, and good to use. It was associated with assertiveness and verbal resourcefulness, competence in heterosexual relationships and opposition to authority’ (2010)
- It has been noted, that even as early as the 1960s and 1970s features of creole were being used by urban youngsters who didn’t have a black peer group - probably for the reasons Rampton outlines above © This can take the form of code mixing - including some words and phrases from one language in another (compared to ‘fully’ taking it on)
6
Q
A Language that Expresses Identity
A
- In some ways, the usage of language that is influenced by Jamaican Creole can be seen as the creation of a resistance identity through language.
- Shunned and mocked by the establishment, the usage of creole could be seen almost as a political stance - an intentional divergence.
- John Pitts (2012) - stated that young black people who felt ignored by society might see their use of creole as statement of resistance.
7
Q
Linguistic Appropriacy
A
This is the way in which language choices reflect ideas for what is appropriate in any given context.
8
Q
Why Users of Black English Should Code Switch
(Gerrard McClendon on Black English Usage in America)
A
Of course, switching from using a language that reflects your ethnic heritage, to one that is ‘standard’ may carry an even greater significance than a working class lad from Liverpool ‘toning it down a bit’ at his university Intervlew in London.
- Formality
9
Q
Super-standard forms
A
- There is a strand of research that looks at super-standard forms that are used by some white speakers.
- Mary Bucholtz (2001) for example, looks at the language of ‘white nerds’ who deliberate distance themselves from white peers who are more likely to adopt ‘cooler’ black speech styles.
- In her book White Kids Mary Bucholtz looked at ‘white nerds’ in America who refused to strive for coolness, which typically involves adopting at least some features of Black American English. The linguistic practices that they did engage in, gloried in their ‘super standard’ stance that was both culturally and racially that be uncool. In this sense, they were creating an alternative identity.
10
Q
Code-switching
A
- The ability to move between different types of language in order to suit the needs of your interlocutor.
11
Q
Gary Ives’ Bradford study
A
- Study in schools in Bradford and London.
- Young people make a conscious choice about the language that they use.
- Students distinguished themselves from those they termed ‘freshies’, meaning those born in Pakistan and themselves, who they would describe as British Asians
- Students didn’t look down on ‘freshies’ but didn’t feel connected to them either
- Inclusion of Punjabi taboo words in order to create a ‘secret language’
- Language is used to create a well-defined social identity
- Influences also come from popular culture, not just students’ Pakistani heritage.
- Clear links with Labov’s Martha’s Vineyard study.
12
Q
Convergence
A
Where a speaker moves towards another speaker’s accent, dialect or sociolect
13
Q
Divergence
A
Where a speaker actively distances themselves from another speaker by accentuating their own accent or dialect
14
Q
Sue Fox, Multi-Ethnic Youth Dialect
A
- MLE is identified with by adolescent users in the wider city environment of greater London - and is gaining ground in other large UK cities likeBristol and Birmingham.
- Influence of settled immigrant speakers is significant (West Indian, West African and Bangladeshi) but speakers are drawn from white, black and Asian communities alike.
- MLE is viewed as a fully functioning dialect in its own right - a gelling of a common culture.
- A Rapidly changing dialect - words and phrases only remain current for a short while.
- “It is likely that young people have been growing up in London exposed to a mixture of second-language English and varieties of English from other parts of the world, as well as local London English, and that this new variety has emerged from that mix,”
- The dialect is heavy with Jamaican and Afro-Caribbean inflections; words are clipped, as opposed to the cockney tendency to stretch vowels(thus face becomes fehs, as in “look a’ mi fehs”), and certain words - creps, blud (thought to relate to blood, as in brother) and sket, are Jamaican in origin.
- A“perfect storm” of circumstances has arisen to ensure the rapid dissemination of MLE: a nexus of immigration, population mobility, and a wave of successful London garage stars (and MLE speakers) such as Lady Sovereign and Dizzee Rascal.
15
Q
Mark Sebba (1993): London
Jamaican
A
London Jamaican is often linked to BBE and has been identified as main language choice of young, new-generation speakers brought up in London’s Carribean community. It lies between Carribean creole forms and Cockney forms (in a similar way that EE lies between RP and Cockney).
16
Q
Viv Edwards (1986):
Jamaican English in West
Midlands
A
- English is the official language of the former British West Indies, therefore African-Caribbean immigrants had few communication difficulties upon arrival in Britain compared to immigrants from other regions.
- Nevertheless, indigenous Britons were generally unused to the distinct Caribbean dialects, creoles and patois (patwah) spoken by many African-Caribbean immigrants and their descendants, which would be particularly problematic in the field of education.
- In a study by language and education specialist Viv Edwards, 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 noting that;
“The teacher who does not or is not prepared to recognise the problems of the Creole-speaking child in a British English situation can only conclude that he is stupid when he gives either an inappropriate response or no response at all. The stereotyping process leads features of Creole to be stigmatised and to develop connotations of, amongst other things, low academic ability.”
17
Q
Devyani Sharma & Lavanya
Sankaran (2011): Punjabi
Indian English in West London
A
- It’s often thought that as they grow up, the children of immigrants begin to sound like their locally-born friends rather than their parents.
- Devyani Sharma and Lavanya Sankaran, though, found that things are more complex than this - language change between different generations is more gradual than might be expected, and it’s also more complex.
- The researchers focussed on the pronunciation of /t/, which has a distinctive local pronunciation as well as a South Asian pronunciation.
- The local London pronunciation of /t/ is glottalised (with the pronunciation of words like water or feet sometimes represented in popular writing as wa’er and fee’). As you might expect, the first generation South Asian speakers had almost no glottalised pronunciations of /t/.
- By contrast, both second generation groups used glottalised /t/; furthermore, they followed the same pattern, using this pronunciation more often at the end of a word than the middle of a word (so, more often in feet than water).
- In their use of glottalised /t/, then, the second generation were speaking more like locally-born people of their age than their parents - just as we might expect.
- The change was also more complex than expected. Unlike both their parents and the older second generation group, the younger speakers used retroflex /t/ more often at the beginning of a word, where it is more noticeable (for example, in tea or toffee). They also pronounced it with a “fortis” (more energetic) phonetic quality.
18
Q
William Labov, Prestige
A
- Prestige can be separated into ‘overt prestige and ‘covert prestige.
- Both are used when changing speech to gain prestige - appearing to have a high reputation/standing/ success etc-but do so in different ways.
- If someone uses ‘overt prestige’ they put on an accent that is generally widely recognized as being used but the ‘culturally dominant group’.
- In England this would be R.P, so putting on a more ‘posh’ accent than their regional one would be using overt prestige, to fit with the
‘dominant group’. - This is the traditional definition, although with the rise of other accents such as Estuary English it may be questioned.
- ‘Covert prestige’ is the opposite, as ‘covert’ means secret. Therefore it means to put on an accent to show membership to an ‘exclusive community’ in the area, rather than to fit with the ‘dominant culture group’.
- Using covert prestige would therefore be putting on a more ‘street cred’ accent rather than R.P, and even though the ‘dominant culture group’ generally sees it as being inferior, using language fitting with the local community would lead to earning respect with those also in the community.
19
Q
Ethnicty Definiton
A
People in a population/group etc who share a common cultural background.
20
Q
Race Definition
A
a group of people sharing common features, physical characteristics and cultural backgrounds
21
Q
Ethnolect
A
A language variety that marks speakers as members of ethnic groups who originally used another language or distinctive variety.
22
Q
Multiethnolect
A
Language variety, typically formed in youth communities, in working class, immigrant neighbourhoods of urban areas that contain influence from a variety of different languages.
23
Q
Links between heritage and identity.
A
British Black English (BBE), for example, is rooted in the English spoken by those who arrived in Britain from the Caribbean from the ate 1940s onwards and who spoke varieties of Caribbean English from Jamaica, Barbados and St Lucia. More recently, BBE has adapted to soak up influences from West Africa, while many younger speakers of all ethnicities have moved towards multiethnolects such as Multicultural London English (MLE) and Multicultural Urban British English (MUBE).
24
Q
British Black English:
A
A wide-ranging label, but often referring to a variety used by some speakers within the Caribbean community in the UK.
25
Multicultural Urban
British English:
A label that refers to the way in which Multicultural London English has spread to other large conurbations in the UK.
26
Accommodation
Where a speaker adapts to another speaker's accent, dialect
27
Characteristics of MLE
- Glottal stop.
- Dialect of younger generation.
- mix of sounds from Carribean, Greece, etc.
- Front Voice sound comes from the back of the mouth.
- Tongue doesn't move as much.
- Th' → "F" e. g 'Third to "Fird'
- Picking the ‘H’ sound back up.
- More relaxed mouth muscles.
Language Dialect change:
**- Glottal stop
- TF fronting
- Dropping (yu)
- Double negatives**
Feature/Usage of:
- **Blud/ blad/ bredren/ bruv --> ‘blad’** is thought to be related to ‘blood brother’ – “What you sayin’ blad?”
- **Nang --> Good / cool** – “Last night was so nang!”
- **Buff** --> Attractive; used to describe a man or woman - “ Hey you seen my new man? He’s well buff innit?
- **Ends** --> Neighbourhood, area - “What ends you from?”
- **Safe/Easy** -->Greeting – “Oh there he is... safe man!”
28
Pidgin
- Trade language
- 2 different languages that have come together.
- Simplifed form of language
- Elements emerge from people not sharing the same language.
- New Language develops = Pidgin NOT AN OFFICAL LANGUAGE.
29
Creole
- Fully developed new language fostered from a mixture of different languages.
- Where speakers are born speaking a pigdin which later becomes a creole.
- A first language.
30
Jafrican
- Term for white speakers who adopt features of MLE to attain status of some sort.
31
Nationality
- Nation to which you formally belong to.
- E.g. On Passports: British Asian --> British = Nationality, Asian = Ethnic Identity.
32
Resistance Identity
- An identity that goes against mainstream culture/standard forms.
33
Patois
- Alternative term for creole. Also known as slag.
34
Anglicisation
- Foreign words we have 'borrowed' and made 'English.'
- e.g. Cafe
35
Super Standard Forms
- Language that deliberately intensifies the standard forms of mainstream culture.
- Hyper-correct.
36
Roger Hewitt (1986) and Mark Sebba (1993)- Black Cockney
- Identified 'Black Cockney' in the 80s.
- A style rather a discrete variety.
- Used by Black Young speakers in London.
37
Sharma & Sankaran (2011)
- Survey of British born individuals investigating how immigrant communities integrate.
- Asked 2 British Asian men to record themselves in different social and professional situations.
- Men: Anwar - 41 year old, Lawyer Ravinder, 20.
- Analysed key uses of accent features typical of Asian English.
- Anwar: Greater variety of Indian & British variant forms, 100% Indian variants to his partner, 100% British forms to 'Cockney mechanic.'
- Ravinder's usage varied only slightly.
- Suggested older groups in 60/70s needed to integrate linguistically when faced with hostile anti-immigrant environment which lasted till 1980s.
- By the next generation, the hostility towards immigrants had reduced as neighbourhoods had become more ethnically mixed. Reducing need of speakers like Ravinder to switch between speech.
38
Mark Sebba (1980s)
- Given the slower rate of immigrantion from Jamaica,, reasoned young speakers (2nd/3rd generation) are likely to have had wide content with White British community & adapted speech accordingly.
- However, young Caribbeans used MLE features more strongly than other groups as they retain linguistic and socially distinct identity.
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Devyani Sharma & Lavanya Sankaran (2011):
Punjabi Indian English in West London
- Devyani Sharma and Lavanya Sankaran, though, found language change between different generations is more gradual than might be expected, and it’s also more complex.
- The researchers analysed the English of three groups of South Asians.
- One group consisted of first generation immigrants who had migrated from India as adults, and the two other groups were locally-born second generation South Asians, one older (aged between 35 and 60) and one younger (aged between 18 and
35).
- The older second generation group had grown up in Southall at a time when South Asians were still a minority group
there and when race relations in the area were hostile. By the time the second, younger, group (aged 18-35) was growing up, South Asians were no longer such a minority in Southall and, perhaps as a result, race relations had shifted to a cooperative coexistence.
The researchers focussed on the pronunciation of /t/, which has a distinctive local pronunciation as well as a South Asian pronunciation. The local London pronunciation of /t/ is glottalised (with the pronunciation of words
like water or feet sometimes represented in popular writing as wa’er and fee’). As you might expect, the first generation South Asian speakers had almost no glottalised pronunciations of /t/. By contrast, both second generation groups used glottalised /t/; furthermore, they followed the same pattern, using this pronunciation more often at the end of a word than the middle of a word (so, more often in feet than water). In their use of glottalised /t/, then, the second generation were speaking more like locally-born people of their age than their parents – just as we might expect.
However, the South Asian speakers sometimes pronounced /t/ as a retracted or retroflex consonant, as in Punjabi, the
Indian language that they also spoke. Here the tip of the tongue is curled back to touch the ridge just behind the top teeth
(or close to the ridge). You can hear this pronunciation in the stereotyped English of Apu, the Indian immigrant in The
Simpsons. The first generation immigrant group used retroflex /t/ 35 per cent of the time. The second generation groups
also used this pronunciation, albeit less often: 16 per cent of the /t/’s in the English of the older second generation were retroflex, and 8 per cent in the English of the younger speakers. The second generation, then, had not altogether
abandoned the pronunciation of their parents: although language change was taking place across the generations in these
immigrant families, it was a more gradual process than is often supposed.
The change was also more complex than expected. Unlike both their parents and the older second generation group, the
younger speakers used retroflex /t/ more often at the beginning of a word, where it is more noticeable (for example,
in tea or toffee). They also pronounced it with a “fortis” (more energetic) phonetic quality.
In interviews with the researchers younger second generation male speakers used retroflex /t/ more often than younger
female speakers Even here, though, the picture is more complicated than this gender difference suggests. Female
speakers used a surprisingly high number of pronunciation features influenced by Punjabi, including retroflex /t/, when
they were speaking English at home. For female speakers, then, there seems to be a sharper compartmentalisation of
styles across their repertoire.
Sharma and Sankaran point out that other pronunciation features pattern in a similar way in the English of these three
groups of speakers. They explain that for the older second generation group, surviving at school and in public meant they
had to downplay Indianness and pass as British, so they acquired local pronunciations and weakened their use of South
Asian ones. Many individuals in this group then went into their fathers’ businesses and had continuing ties with India.
Depending on where they were and who they were talking to, they needed to signal that they belonged either to a British
or an Indian group. As a result, they were able to control two distinct pronunciations of English. The younger generation
not only had less regular contact with India, but by the time they were growing up race relations in the area were less
hostile, so they did not need to try to pass as British. Instead, using a focused, Punjabi-inflected speech style allows them
to signal their allegiance to the now sizeable local British Asian community.
Sharma and Sankaran note that in immigrant communities elsewhere – in North America, for example – there may be
more rapid assimilation to local patterns of pronunciation since, as they have shown, linguistic assimilation depends in
part on social factors such as community relations and the size of the migrant community.
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