Ethnolects as a multidimensional phenomenon
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Pieter Muysken✝
Abstract
This paper contrasts two different views of the phenomenon of ethnolect, ethnic varieties of a language: the shift perspective and the multidimensional perspective. In the shift perspective, the focus is on the approximation in the speech of ethnic groups to the dominant national target language, while in the multidimensional perspective the original languages of the ethnic group and processes of mutual convergence and simplification play an additional role. The multidimensional perspective allows us to contextualize the varieties that have emerged in the process of shift within an overall account of multilingual repertoires of speakers of a non-dominant language. The complexity of the verbal repertoire and the alternating reliance on strategies of maintenance and shift, convergence, mixing, and simplification create the ethnolectal varieties.
Abstract
This paper contrasts two different views of the phenomenon of ethnolect, ethnic varieties of a language: the shift perspective and the multidimensional perspective. In the shift perspective, the focus is on the approximation in the speech of ethnic groups to the dominant national target language, while in the multidimensional perspective the original languages of the ethnic group and processes of mutual convergence and simplification play an additional role. The multidimensional perspective allows us to contextualize the varieties that have emerged in the process of shift within an overall account of multilingual repertoires of speakers of a non-dominant language. The complexity of the verbal repertoire and the alternating reliance on strategies of maintenance and shift, convergence, mixing, and simplification create the ethnolectal varieties.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Ethnolects as a multidimensional phenomenon 7
- Applying language technology to detect shift effects 27
- Generational differences in pronominal usage in Spanish reflecting language and dialect contact in a bilingual setting 45
- Personal pronoun variation in language contact 63
- Turkish in the Netherlands 87
- The reflection of historical language contact in present-day Dutch and Swedish 103
- The impact of German on Schleife Sorbian 119
- Detecting contact effects in pronunciation 131
- Language contact and phonological contrast 155
- Translating cultures within the EU 181
- Name index 219
- Subject index 223
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Ethnolects as a multidimensional phenomenon 7
- Applying language technology to detect shift effects 27
- Generational differences in pronominal usage in Spanish reflecting language and dialect contact in a bilingual setting 45
- Personal pronoun variation in language contact 63
- Turkish in the Netherlands 87
- The reflection of historical language contact in present-day Dutch and Swedish 103
- The impact of German on Schleife Sorbian 119
- Detecting contact effects in pronunciation 131
- Language contact and phonological contrast 155
- Translating cultures within the EU 181
- Name index 219
- Subject index 223
