Ethnolects

[helenv]

Hi all,

Does anyone know where I can get information on ethnolects in Australia, specifically vietnamese would be nice. Google keeps showing ethnolects such as maltese, lebanese, indian... Wikipedia doesn't have anything useful.

If anyone could suggest a book or something hopefully before Wednesday - you are awesome!

Thanks a bunch! 

[appianway]

If this is for the SAC, you don't really need to look up information on specific ethnolects. You'd be better off looking up Vietnamese syntax, morphology, pronunciation and things like that and making a comparison with how a Vietnamese individual speaks English. You can use the information about the other ethnolects to look at the ways in which other languages can influence speech, and you might be able to find some common ground.

(I'm presuming the SAC hasn't changed in the last 2 years, but perhaps it has...)

[binders]

not too much info, but still interesting if you're still curious
http://clas.mq.edu.au/voices/ethnocultural-voices

if you look in the bibliography at the bottom of the page, and then look on worldcat or openlibrary, you may be able to find the kind
of book you're after.

[azngirl456]

@appianway, when you did Englang, did you write your sac 1  up in class with 2 pages of notes + transcript? Also did you only get one essay topic?

@helenv, I think it would be best if you try and ask yourself why a person is speaking in a particular way, what does it demonstrate, and why it may be difficult for them to pronounce words and structure sentences. By investigating other ethnolects you might find that some of these reasons apply to most other ethnolects.

[helenv]

Thanks you guys!

azngirl456, thanks for the explanation - appianway confused me XD

binders, thanks for the site - you made me look at the bottom of the site where all the useful stuff was XD

Thanks again - you guys are awesome!

[appianway]

@appianway, when you did Englang, did you write your sac 1  up in class with 2 pages of notes + transcript? Also did you only get one essay topic?

Yes. So it hasn't changed That SAC was probably my best, so if you need help, feel free to ask

[helenv]

Hi again,

So seeing as we're in the mood for questions, could someone explain how an ethnolect can lexicologically, semantically and discourse-ically differ from the standard. I can understand phonological, syntax and morphological differences but the others I don't get.

Thanks a bunch! 

[appianway]

It really depends. Here are some things which *might* occur:

Lexicology: Perhaps some confusion over words, using more esoteric words instead of more casual ones. For instance, you might see someone saying "proposition" instead of idea (or something like that), because they believe it's more prestigious and they're trying to affirm that they're fluent in the language. Of course, this doesn't reflect their original language, but it reflects that they perceive a need to demonstrate that they are capable at English. These substitutions can also occur if individuals aren't fully aware of the nuances of words, and might reflect their original education in english.

Semantically: The most common example would be people translating directly from their native tongue. For instance, a french speaker might say "I have hunger" instead of "I'm hungry", because in french, the verb to have is used. There are probably many other examples.


Discourse: People might use certain titles (like Miss) even though it doesn't seem appropriate. The speech might be syllable timed (instead of stress timed), and they might use more or less hedging expressions. 

[Keine]

appianway: Can I just ask how the 'misusage of titles' is a feature of an ethnolect differing from the Standard? I just don't see it : (   and I thought syllable timed speech was a feature of phonology?

The lexicon for ethnolects quite often vary from the standard: For example, they often include borrowings from another native language- eg, in Singaporean English, there are only too many borrowings from Hokkien and Chinese; they have incorporated words such as 'An Moh' meaning white or caucasian person or perhaps 'Eye power', which means to "Watch physical work being done by others instead of helping them" (funny, I know)

Semantically, the exact same sentence in an Ethnolect and the Standard can mean completely different things, for example: "Want to go for a drink?" could be meaning to ask whether the listener would like to have an alcoholic beverage in Australian English, but for the Standard, it would simply mean to ask whether the listener would like to have fluids- any drink.

[binders]

re: misuse of titles - a bloke i knew from sri lanka was introduced to someone's niece  "and this is my niece". he said "hello niece!"

as for lexemes, how about "yalla!" or uleh? or "baba" used among mates (if you're indian/sri lankan).  I've copped 'uncle' a good few times. ever heard "today night" instead of "tonight"? i have, heaps of times. and also, a tendency to use "is --ing" more often (even "it is paining").

discourse can just be how say, a dialogue is structured, greetings, pauses, register shifting, topic change markers etc.

[helenv]

Hi,

Okay still on this ethnolect business - what is it called when someone makes a /t/ sound after some words that don't have /t/? e.g. like /meIkt/. Would that be phonetic? And I don't know how that fits in with the ethnolect. Vietnamese people don't usually make that sound unless it's an idiolect but I still can't explain that.

[binders]

could you explain it by putting it under the category of mistakes made during language acquisition?
it you've got a regular past ending in -ed (/-t/ after verbs ending in a voiceless consonant), then a learner
may put it there by analogy without realising that "make" has an irregular past.
did that make sense? not sure i understood your question

[azngirl456]

Maybe he puts the t at the of the words because it might be common for him to say 'make the' or 'bake the'

And because he's so used to that, he might accidentally say that for every time he has to say 'make'

I'll say this falls under phonetics

[helenv]

uh yeah that made sense but the thing is they don't just do it with verbs, they also do it with nouns as well...

hmm good point about the usual make the thing but I don't know. I don't usually speak english with him, I speak vietnamese with him. But I doubt that he'd make a habit of it. He's not that type of person.

[binders]

to figure it out, you may have to look at more than one individual. otherwise you may just be looking at differences on the idiolect level.