Ethnicity and Social

Networks
3rd group of 7A1
Amanda Nurfirda - Ana Ispri Yanti - Diva Putri - Widianingrum
 ETHNICITY
ETHNICITY
Ethnicity is a group of people who have
the same characteristics of culture,
language, and physical appearance but
have different identities with other
groups of people.
When people belong to the same group, they often
speak the same language. But there are many
different groups within a community, so that each
individual can share linguistic features with various
other speakers. Some of these linguistic features
indicate a person's social status. There are also clues
to a person's ethnic markers. Individuals take
advantage of all these resources when they are
building their social identity.
 Example:
When I was in Montreal I found a small restaurant in the old French quarter
where the menu looked affordable and attractive. I was greeted in French by
the waiter and I responded in French, though my accent clearly signalled that I
was a native English speaker. At this point, the waiter, who was undoubtedly
bilingual, had a choice. He chose to continue in French and, though I cannot be sure
of his reasons, I interpreted this choice as expressing his wish to be identifi ed as
a French Canadian. In any case, I was very happy that my French had not been
so awful that he felt he had to switch to English.

Many ethnic groups use a distinctive language associated with their ethnic identity, as well as in
the example above. Where a choice of language is available for communication, it is often
possible for an individual to signal their ethnicity by the language they choose to use. 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.
 Lee : Kia ora June. Where you been? Not seen you round for
a while.
June : Kia ora . I’ve just come back from my Nanny’s tangi [
FUNERAL ]. Been up in Rotorua for a week.
Lee : E kï [I S THAT SO!] a sad time for you, e hoa [M Y
FRIEND] and for all your family, ne [ ISN’T IT ].
June : Ae [ YES ]. We’ll all miss Nanny. She was a wonderful
woman.
 African American
Vernacular English
AAVE is heard especially in the northern cities of
the USA. One of its most distinctive features is
the complete absence of the copula verb be in
some social and linguistic contexts.

AAVE = she be at school on weekdays

the beer be warm at the that place
US standard = she’s always at school on weekdays
English the beer’s always warm at that place
In other condition, people do not usually say She is very nice but rather She’s very
nice . They reduce or contract the is to s.
 British Black English
Those born in Britain are usually described as members of the
British Black community and some speak a variety of Jamaican
Creole as well as a variety of English. Others speak a range of
varieties of English with different frequencies of creole features
depending on the social context and who they are talking to.

The variety of Jamaican Creole still used by some British Blacks is

known as Patois or British Jamaican Creole. London Jamaican, for
instance, is the London variety of Patois.
Example:
Polly is a young British Black teenager who lives in the
West Midlands. Her parents came to Britain from Jamaica
in 1963 looking for jobs. Though Polly’s mother had a good
education in Jamaica, the only work she was able to fi nd
in Dudley was cleaning offi ces at night. Polly’s father
used to work in a factory, but he was laid off and has
been unemployed for nearly two years now. They live in a
predominantly Black neigh bourhood and almost all Polly’s
friends are young Black people. She and her parents
attend the local Pentecostal church. Her older brother
used to attend too, but he has stopped since he left school.
 Maori English vernacular verb forms (such as
There is little evidence so far of linguistic features walk for walked ) occurred
which occur only in the speech of Maori people :
more often in the speech of the
The alternation between [d] and [e] at the
Maori children than the Pakeha.
beginning of words like the and then
some distinctive uses of verbs,
Greetings like kia ora and vocabulary items
such as went and , which
like tangi (‘funeral’)
seemed to be used as a
There are also grammatical features which occur more
frequently in Maori people’s speech: narrative past tense marker by
the Maori children
Maori women were more likely to use
vernacular past tense forms of some verbs
Maori women were more likely than Pakeha to
use present tense forms with s
And much more likely to omit have
Examples
 New Englishes
It would be possible to consider African American English, Black English and
Maori English as examples of ‘new’ varieties of English, compared to older, well-
established varieties such as British standard English and US standard English.
However, the term ‘new Englishes’ is most often used to describe varieties which
have developed in post-colonial societies where the colonial powers have been
displaced, but the legacy of English remains.
English was not initially taught by native speaker ‘settlers’ to new generations,
and the varieties of English which have developed are typically infl uenced by
local languages spoken in the region, e.g. Hokkien Chinese, Malay and Tamil in
Singapore.
As English continues to grow in terms of its utility as a lingua franca in
multilingual countries and at the international level, it is increasingly being
adopted as a medium of education in many countries, especially at secondary
and tertiary level. As a result, some varieties of the New Englishes, such as
Singapore English, are now used in the home, and these are steadily moving into
the position of native-speaker varieties of English with quite distinctive local
features.
 Social Networks
Networks in sociolinguistics refer to the pattern of
informal relationships people are involved in on a
regular basis.
Example :
Tom lives in Ballymacarrett, a Protestant area east of the
River Lagan in Belfast. He is 18 years old and works as an
apprentice in the shipyard. He got the job through his uncle
Bob who works at the shipyard, and he has a cousin Mike,
who works there too.

He and Mike live in the same street and most nights they
have a beer together after work. They also run a disco with
two friends, Jo and Gerry, and that means that several nights
a week they travel across town to perform at different venues.
There are two technical terms which have proved very useful for
describing different types of networks

Density Plexity
refers to a measure of the
whether members range of
of a person’s different types
network are in of transaction
touch with each people are
other. involved in with
different
individuals.
 Communities of practice and the
construction of social identity
The concept ‘community of practice’ has been adopted by some sociolinguists to permit a
focus on social categories like these which make more sense to participants than
abstract categories such as class and gender. Communities of practice develop around
the activities which group members engage in together, and their shared goals and
attitudes.
For Example:

At school, Jo constructs her burnout identity, using particular vocabulary (e.g. poins ) and innovative
variants of vowels in the pronunciation of words like fun and line . At home with her family or in her
after-school job, she may emphasise different aspects of her social identity, again using linguistic
choices to indicate her affiliations and values.
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