What is an ethnolect and what are the purposes?

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An important aspect of Unit 4 AOS 1 is understanding the definition of an ethnolect and the various purposes.

Remember: Ethnolect = Ethnic + Dialect! This is known as a morphological blend.

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So what exactly is the purpose of an ethnolect?

Language is an incredibly important marker of identity – how we perceive ourselves and how we wish others to perceive us can collectively be reflected through our language usage. An ethnolect, therefore, allows migrant speakers or subsequent generations to reflect their ancestral heritage through their language.

- Ethnic varieties can become potent markers of a group’s identity, especially in the face of language attrition (erosion)
- Speakers start to value ethnic features in their English, therefore accentuating ethnic differentiation
- Linguistic features (often from the first language) function much like ‘clique’ or in-group recognition devices
- Many second-generation and later generations of non-English backgrounds employ two different varieties of Australian English – a mainstream variety when they are speaking to most interlocutors and an ethnolect when they are speaking to their parents, people of similar background or sometimes to all members in society
- Ethnolects are marked variously by lexical, grammatical, phonological and or prosodic features
- Pidginised features include auxiliary/pronoun omission o How make Baklava? For: How do I make Baklava?
- Lexical items are often transferred (e.g. YiaYia for Grandma in Greek)
- Bruce Moore, head of the Australian National Dictionary Centre at the ANU, in his book, Speaking Our Language, The Story Of Australian English, says that an ethnolect, “is used consciously to separate the speakers from Anglo-Australian values, and at its extreme also to separate the speakers from some parts of their own culture”.

Ask yourself this question - do I or any of my family members speak with an ethnolect? If so, which linguistic features prove this to be true?