The Relationship between Language and Ethnicity

Authors

  • Dr. Gayatree Mishra

Keywords:

Language and Ethnicity, inter-ethnic communication, language and identity.

Abstract

Language plays a crucial role in the construction and maintenance of ethnic identity. The ethnicity has a more striking relationship to language than other social factors such as gender, age, or social class. Thus language is only one factor in the ethno linguistic description of a people, or an ethnic group. Language is a primary characteristic and an always present characteristic of ethnicity. Without language you would have an incomplete description of ethnicity. Language is the primary component of ethnicity. What is ethnicity? Is there a 'white' way of speaking? Why do people sometimes borrow features of another ethnic group's language? Why do we sometimes hear an accent that isn't there? Drawing on research from a range of ethnic groups around the world, it shows how language contributes to the social and psychological processes involved in the formation of ethnic identity, exploring both the linguistic features of ethnic language varieties and also the ways in which language is used by different ethnic groups. Complete with discussion questions and a glossary, Language and Ethnicity will be welcomed by students and researchers in sociolinguistics, as well as anybody interested in ethnic issues, language and education, inter-ethnic communication, and the relationship between language and identity.

References

• BAKER, P. & J. Eversley, eds. 2000. Multilingual capital: the languages of London’s schoolchildren and their relevance to economic, social and educational policies. London: Battlebridge.

• CHESHIRE, J. & S. Fox, 2009. Was/were variation: A perspective from London. Language Variation and Change 21: 1-38.

• CHESHIRE, J., P. Kerswill, S. Fox, & E. Torgersen, 2011. Contact, the feature pool and the speech community: The emergence of Multicultural London English. Journal of Sociolinguistics 15/2: 151-196.

• EDWARDS, V., 1986. Language in a black community. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. HOLLMANN, W. & A. Siewierska, 2007. A construction grammar account of possessive constructions in Lancashire dialect: Some advantages and challenges. English Language and Linguistics 11: 407-424.

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Published

2022-12-31

How to Cite

Mishra, D. G. . (2022). The Relationship between Language and Ethnicity. The Journal of Contemporary Issues in Business and Government, 28(4), 1622–1625. Retrieved from https://cibgp.com/au/index.php/1323-6903/article/view/2697

Issue

Vol. 28 No. 4 (2022): The journal of contemporary issues in business and government

Section

Articles

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