Ethnic / Linguistic Groups
in Taiwan
What are the various groups in Taiwan?
1/20
Singh’s Multiple Layers
of Ethnicity
Englishman
Scots
East Indian
Frenchman
American
Martian
Singh, Ishta. 1999. Language and ethnicity. In Linda Thomas and Shan Wareing,
editors. Language, Society and Power: An Introduction, pp. 83-97. London:
2/20
Routledge, p. 86.
Myths and Truth about Language
and Ethnic Groups
Myths
 People BELIEVE there are LANGUAGE differences
(pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax) between
races or ethnic groups
 People THINK they can tell by listening to people’s
speech.
Truth
 These differences are LEARNED BEHAVIOUR:
People talk like the people they live around.
Trudgill, Peter. 2000. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society,
4th edition. London: Penguin Books, pp. 42-43.
3/20
What Language Can Babies Learn?
戎人生乎戎，長乎戎，而戎言；不知其
所受之。楚人生乎楚，長乎楚，而楚
言；不知其所受之。今使楚人長乎戎，
戎人長乎楚；則楚人戎言，戎人楚言
矣。
呂氏春秋
用眾 section
Available online
4/20
Multiple Layers of Ethnicity 1
The fact that people can have multiple
layers of ethnic identity was neatly illustrated
on a 1997 advertisement on BBC Radio 1 for
a helpline for victims of racial harassment.
It took the form first of two men, one
English, the other Scottish, arguing in a pub.
The two traded insults based on the other’s
individual ethnic identity.
Singh, Ishta. 1999. Language and ethnicity. In Linda Thomas and Shan Wareing,
editors. Language, Society and Power: An Introduction, pp. 83-97. London:
5/20
Routledge, p. 86.
Multiple Layers of Ethnicity 2
A third man, with an East Indian accent, then
intervened and the Englishman and Scotsman
then claimed solidarity as ‘real’ British, turning
on the member of the British East Indian
minority group.
Singh, Ishta. 1999. Language and ethnicity. In Linda Thomas and Shan Wareing,
editors. Language, Society and Power: An Introduction, pp. 83-97. London:
6/20
Routledge, p. 86.
Multiple Layers of Ethnicity 3
A Frenchman then walked into the foray,
which caused the Englishman, Scotsman and
East Indian to claim solidarity as ‘British’ and
to carry on a well-established tradition of
hostility with France.
Singh, Ishta. 1999. Language and ethnicity. In Linda Thomas and Shan Wareing,
editors. Language, Society and Power: An Introduction, pp. 83-97. London:
7/20
Routledge, p. 86.
Multiple Layers of Ethnicity 4
An American then stepped in, causing the
Frenchman and the ‘British’ to merge into
‘Europeans’.
Singh, Ishta. 1999. Language and ethnicity. In Linda Thomas and Shan Wareing,
editors. Language, Society and Power: An Introduction, pp. 83-97. London:
8/20
Routledge, p. 86.
Multiple Layers of Ethnicity 5
The sketch ended with the appearance of a
Martian, which then united the rest as ‘Earth
humans’.
Singh, Ishta. 1999. Language and ethnicity. In Linda Thomas and Shan Wareing,
editors. Language, Society and Power: An Introduction, pp. 83-97. London:
9/20
Routledge, p. 86.
King Charles V (1500-1558)
Charles V is quoted as saying:
I speak
Spanish to God,
Italian to women,
French to men and
German to my horse.
From The Columbia World of Quotations (1996) found at www.bartleby.com
10/20
French Equivalents
for Borrowed Words
Loan Word
le weekend
computer
software
digital
email
Native Equivalent





la fin de la semaine
ordinateur
logiciel
numérique
courriel
11/20
Source: www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions
12/20
13/20
Source: www.ethnomusic.ucla.edu/ensembles/worldmusic/balkans/map.htm
Croatia
Bosnia
Serbia
Source: www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions
14/20
The Language(s) of Yugoslavia
Language
Ethnicity
Location
Alphabet
Religion
Serbian
Croatian Bosnian
Serbs
Croat
Bosnians
East
West
Middle
Cyrillic
Latin
?
Orthodox Catholic
Christian
Muslim
Trudgill, Peter. 2000. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society,
4th edition. London: Penguin Books, based on information on pp. 46-48.
15/20
Substratum Influence on English
Gaelic Substratum
West Highland
English
Standard Scots
English
Take that whisky here Bring that whisky here.
I’m seeing you!
I can see you!
It’s not that
I don’t want that.
that I’m wanting.
Trudgill, Peter. 2000. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society,
4th edition. London: Penguin Books, p. 51.
16/20
What AAVE is and is not
 It IS a DIFFERENT VARIETY of English.
 It may look like it is BAD [STANDARD]
ENGLISH, but it is not.
 Because it is a Different Variety it has ITS OWN
RULES.
 So, it CANNOT / SHOULD NOT be compared
with Standard English [if the intent is to show
how it DEVIATES from that SUPPOSED NORM.]
17/20
AAVE Absence of
Present Tense BE
She real nice.
They out there.
He not American.
If you good, you going to heaven.
BUT
I know what it is.
Is she?
Trudgill, Peter. 2000. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society,
4th edition. London: Penguin Books, p. 55.
18/20
AAVE Invariant BE
He usually be around
Sometime she be fighting
Sometime when they do it, most of the
problems always be wrong.
She be nice and happy.
They sometimes be incomplete.
BUT
*He be busy right now.
(No be)
*He be my father.
(No be)
Trudgill, Peter. 2000. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society,
4th edition. London: Penguin Books, p. 55.
19/20
UK Social Class and Accent—
Population View
Montgomery, Martin. 1995. An Introduction to Language and Society, 2nd edition.
Routledge, p. 71.
20/20