Sociolinguistics
Chapter 8
Ethnicity and Social Networks
Learning Objectives
 Ethnicity



African American Vernacular English
British Black English
Maori New Zealanders
 Social networks

Communities of practice and the construction
of social identity
Ethnicity
Many ethnic groups use a distinctive
language associated with their ethnic identity.
Even when a complete conversation in an
ethnic language is not possible, people may
use short phrases, verbal fillers or linguistic
tags, which signal ethnicity.
Ethnicity
Example 2
New Zealanders use Maori linguistic
signals like kia ora, e ki, ne to express their
ethnic identity.
Ethnicity
Further examples
Chinese Singaporeans in Singapore use
the tag la to express solidarity.
Italians in Boston and Sydney use
particularly high percentage of vernacular
pronunciations of certain vowels.
Ethnicity
Further examples
Scottish people in New Zealand retain the
[r].
Jewish people in Boston and New York
use marked linguistic tags such as oy vay,
and Yiddish vocabulary items such as
bagel.
Ethnicity
 African American Vernacular English
 British Black English
 Maori New Zealanders
African American Vernacular
English
 Omission of the verb be
Example 4
 Invariant be to signal recurring actions
Example 5
 Multiple negation
Figure 8.1
 Consonant cluster simplification
last Standard American English [la:st]
AAVE [la:s]
Exercise 2
British Black English
 People of West Indian or African Carribbean
origin who were born in Britain are described
as British Black community.
 They speak Patois, a variety of Jamaican
creole.
Example 6
Patois
 Vocabulary


lick meaning hit
kenge meaning weak
 Pronunciation


then [den]
thin [tin]
 Grammar

No use of plural, tense markers
Maori New Zealanders
 Vocabulary
 tangi meaning funeral
 kuia meaning old woman
 Pronunciation
 then [den]
 Grammar
 Vernacular use of present and past tense
forms
Example 8
Exercise 4
Activity 8.1
Do you see ethnic groups using a distinctive
language to signal their ethnic identity in your
society? Give examples to illustrate your
answer.
Ethnicity
 140,000 Filipinos in Hong Kong
 Large import of labour from the Philippines
since 1974
 Tagalog
Social Networks
People’s speech reflect the types of networks
they belong to.
Example 9
Social Networks
Sandy
Jo
Cousin Mike
Tom
Gerry
Uncle Bob
Density and Plexity
Density
Whether members of a person’s network are
in touch with each other
Plexity
Whether there are many types of transaction
members are involved in
Activity 8.2
Draw a network for yourself. Identify the
three people you talk to most. Link them to
yourself by lines on the diagram.
Do you think your social network would
provide any clues to the way you speak?
Would it identify the people whose speech
your speech most resembles?
Communities of practice and the
construction of social identity
Communities of practice develop around the
activities which group members engage in
together, and their shared objectives and
attitudes.
Example 11