LING20010 Chap.7 Language, Ethnicity and Race
Language, Ethnicity and Race
Ethnicity and race are both socially constructed, but the subject studies them with different lenses. This chapter first defines ethnicity following Fought and Fishman: constructed, contrastive, fluid, ascribed by self and others, and marked by language among other signs.
It covers ethnolects and the repertoire alternative, with African American English copula patterns, Jewish English, Australian ethnolects, ethnic orientation in Toronto and multiethnolects such as Copenhagen street language.
It then turns to race: the invention of racial categories, Bucholtz's claim that race is built through language, accent hallucination, and raciolinguistics, which asks how listeners co-construct language and race. Australian cases, from the dictation test under the Immigration Restriction Act to the treatment of skilled migrants and COVID-era racism, bring the lens home.
It also shows why researchers must avoid linguistic essentialism: there is no one-to-one relationship between an ethnic group and an ethnolect, and speakers use ethnically linked features to different degrees depending on their networks, activities and ideologies.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Defining ethnicity
- 02
Ethnolects and ethnolinguistic repertoires
- 03
African American English copula patterns
- 04
Multiethnolects
- 05
Racialisation and raciolinguistics
- 06
Language tests and migration in Australia
Worked example · free
Choose the right lens for four research questions
- 1Question 1 asks how speakers construct identity from a repertoire: ethnicity lens.
- 1Question 2 asks how racial expectations shape what listeners hear: race lens.
- 1Question 3 asks how a speaker uses ethnolectal features across settings: ethnicity lens.
- 1Question 4 asks how power structures judge accents as proxies for race: race lens.
Key terms
- Ethnolinguistic repertoire
- An ethnolinguistic repertoire is the pool of ethnically linked features that speakers draw on to different degrees.
- Multiethnolect
- A multiethnolect is a variety used by several minority groups together to express or answer their minority status.
- Racialisation
- Racialisation is the social creation of racial categories and the linking of physical traits to social meanings.
- Accent hallucination
- Accent hallucination is hearing a stronger accent in identical speech because of what a listener believes about the speaker's race.
Language, Ethnicity and Race FAQ
What makes ethnicity a constructed category?
It is not biological. It is defined in contrast with other groups, shaped by both self-ascription and others' ascription, and expressed through language alongside descent, values and outward signs such as food and dress, so it shifts with situation and perspective.
What is aspectual be in African American English?
It marks habitual action. A sentence with invariant be describes something that happens regularly, which mainstream American English expresses with words like usually, while the zero copula marks a present state without be.
Why was the dictation test a racial policy?
The Act aimed to exclude coloured immigration, but explicit racial wording was opposed, so exclusion was routed through a dictation test given selectively in any European language. It worked as a device for exclusion rather than a measure of competence.
What is accent hallucination?
It is the finding that listeners rate the very same recording as more heavily accented when they believe the speaker belongs to a racialised group. Listeners can even report grammatical errors that are not there, which shows perception being shaped by expectations about race.
Assessment move
Revise the two lenses as a pair: for ethnicity, how speakers build identity; for race, how listeners and institutions hear and judge. Then attach evidence to each. For ethnicity, learn the definition of an ethnolect, Benor's repertoire alternative and one Australian example. For race, learn racialisation, accent hallucination and Rosa's Chicago case well enough to explain them in two sentences each.
Practise the copula patterns with your own example sentences so you can recognise zero copula and aspectual be. If your project touches ethnicity, avoid essentialism in your methods: describe how participants identify themselves rather than assigning them a label.
Close each revision session by explaining, in your own words, why identical recordings can be heard differently, since that single finding connects the race lens to everyday experience.
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