1. Summarized from
SOCIOLINGUISTICS
An Introduction to Language and Society
PeterTrudgill
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SOCIOLINGUISTICS

2. Language and
Ethnic Group
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Chapter 3

3. In the previous chapters..
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We talked about  language behaviour  from a social point of
view: 1) the function of language in establishing social
relationships; 2) role played by language in conveying information
about the speaker.
There is a close inter-relationship between language and society.
We also learned variation in the way people use a language 
due to social class differentiation.
Today, we’re about to focus on language in relation to ethnic
groups.

4. Language and Ethnic Group
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An ethnic group or ethnicity is a socially defined
category of people who identify with each other
based on common ancestral, social, cultural or
national experience. Membership of an ethnic
group tends to be defined by a shared cultural
heritage, ancestry, origin myth, history,
homeland, language and/or dialect, ideology,
symbolic systems such as religion, mythology
and ritual, cuisine, dressing style, physical
appearance, etc. (So urce : Wikipe dia )
An ethnic group that is assum e d to have a

5. In the United States..
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There are, for example, differences between the English
spoken by the (so called) White Americans and Black
Americans.
It is easy to assign people to one of the two ethnic groups
solely on the basis of their language.
This indicates the ‘black speech’ and ‘white speech’ have
some kind of social reality for many Americans.

6. However..
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Whether one speaks ‘White’ or ‘Black’ English is the result of learned
behavior’.
People do not speak the way they do because they are “white” or “black”.
What actually happens is that speakers acquire the linguistic
characteristics of those they live in close contact with.
Members of the two ethnic groups learn the linguistic varieties
associated with them in exactly the same way that social-class dialects
are acquired.
By no means all American Blacks speak African American Vernacular
English (AAVE), but the overwhelming majority of those who do speak
it are Blacks, and can be identified as such from their speech alone.

7. Obviously then..
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There is no racial or physiological basis of any kind for
this particular type of linguistic variation.
In the past, there was a belief that there was an inherent
connection between ‘language’ and ‘race’.
Any human being can learn any human language.
There are many cases of whole ethnic groups switching
language through time – for example, the large numbers
of people of African origin who now speak European
languages only.

8. It remains true, however, that…
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Language may be an important or even essential concomitant
of ethnic-group membership.
Linguistic characteristics may be the most defining criteria
for ethnic-group membership.
Ethnic-group differentiation in a mixed community, then, is
a particular type of social differentiation, and as such, will
often have linguistic differentiation associated with it.
The different ethnic groups therefore maintain their
separateness and identity as much through language as
anything else.

9. Varieties of Language and Ethnicity
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The separate identity of ethnic groups is not only
signaled by different languages.
Ethnic affiliation can also be signaled by different varieties
of the same language.
Ethnic group differentiation may then act as a barrier to
the communication of linguistic features in the same way
as other social barriers.
Individuals who are black, for example, are much more
likely to be aware of the fact that they are ‘black’ than
they are to recognize that they are, say, ‘lower middle
class’.
This means that ethnic-group membership and identity
may be an important social fact for them which can be
signaled by persistent linguistic differences.

10. It Should be Noted…
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Ethnic groups are relatively fluid entities whose
boundaries can change and which can come into being
and/or disappear during the course of history. An
interesting example of this comes from the former
Yugoslavia…

11. Former Yugoslavia: A Case in Point
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Between 1918 and the 1990s, Yugoslavia was a multi-ethnic,
multilingual nation-state.
Most of this country was covered by a geographical dialect
continuum of South Slavic dialects.
Everybody was agreed that the dialects of Slovenia in the north-
western part of this continuum were dialects of Standard
Slovenian; and from 1945 onwards, the official position was that
the dialects of Yugoslavian Macedonia, in the north, were dialects
of Standard Macedonian.
In the center of the country, however – Croatia, Montenegro,
Bosnia-Hercegovina and Serbia – the situation was rather more
complex.
The official position was that the language of these areas was
Serbo-Croat. Serbian was often written in the Cyrillic alphabet
and Croatian in the Latin alphabet.
 At various times in history, Serbian and Croatian have variously been
considered a single language with two different varieties, or two different
languages, depending on the prevailing ideology and political situation.

12. Former Yugoslavia: A Case in Point
Continued..
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In Bosnia, the central part of Yugoslavia, the position was even
more complex.
The dialects spoken in this central part of the dialect continuum
are intermediate between those of Croatia and Serbia.
The people who live in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, might
perhaps say that they spoke Croatian if they were Croats because
their Croatian ethnic identity is important to them.
The Serbian population of Sarajevo may say that they spoke
Serbian because their Serbian identity is important to them also.
However, the dialects the two ethnic groups spoke were exactly
the same, and therefore for them the combined name Serbo-Croat
actually made more sense.

13. Former Yugoslavia:A Case in Point
Continued..
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Since early 1990, with the break-up of Yugoslavia, this situation has
changed.
The now independent government in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia,
calls its national language Croatian, and strongly favors the Latin
alphabet.
The Serbian government in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, calls its
national language Serbian, and strongly favors the Cyrillic alphabet.
In both cases, the governments have attempted to carry out what some
opponents have called ‘lexical cleansing’ – in parallel with the tragic
instances of ethnic cleansing that have occurred in various places in
former Yugoslavia.
Both Croatian and Serbian governments are also attempting to remove
Turkish words from their languages, while the Bosnian government
seems to be favoring them.
New governments in former Yugoslavia are thus deliberately attempting
to stress their separate identities, nation-hoods and ethnicities by
focusing on linguistic differences.

14. So…
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As we saw earlier in the previous lectures, whether a
linguistic variety is a language or not is by no means
entirely a linguistic question.
When sociopolitical issues are also connected with issues
of ethnicity, they can become very complex indeed, and
one language can end up being three languages.

15. The African American Vernacular of English
(AAVE): Another Case in Point
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In the English-speaking world, one of the most striking
examples of linguistic ethnic-group differentiation is the
difference we have seen between the speech of black and
white Americans.
It is believed that the lack of integration between black
and white American communities is leading to a
linguistic divergence of the black and white varieties of
English in America, showing a dramatic reflection of the
severe racial division between the two communities.

16. Origins of AAVE
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 There are two main views:
1. AAVE features are derived from the English
dialects of the British Isles.
2. AAVE features are derived from West
African languages.
 Another major argument suggests that the first
African Americans spoke an English Creole, which has,
over the years, gone though a process of decreolization
to become the AAVE of today.

17. The Divergence Hypothesis
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Due to the racially divided nature of American society, and
the lack of integration between blacks and whites, AAVE and
White speech in America are believed to be growing apart,
showing a dramatic reflection of the severe racial division
between the two communities.

18. So, why does race and language entail so
much emotional reaction then?
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One of the most important ways of identifying members of
a community is by the language or variety of language they
speak.
Language is a very important marker of ethnic identity.
Most ethnic groups believe that their language is the best
way to preserve and protect their ethnic identity.