Language and ethincity

Ask yourself: 1) How is language used to reflect or transmit particular characteristics of individuals or groups in terms of ethnicity 2) How is language used to shape perspectives and behaviour representing people from different ethnic groups? - To determine how ethnic groups are perceived; to highlight or obscure characteristics - Purposes and/or reasons (e.g. to promote; to foster solidarity; to reinforce notions of status and prestige) - Create, reinforce and/or challenge values and attitudes - To maintain, challenge or re-appropriate the status quo (e.g. power structures; social expectations such as stereotypes) Race: perceived physical similarities and differences that groups and cultures consider socially significant; you generally cannot change your race Ethnicity: a shared social identity consisting of cultural practices, language, beliefs and history; you have some control over your ethnic affiliation - Nationalism: there is a close relationship between ethnicity and nationalism, with a persistent idea that nations should be ethnically and linguistically homogeneous. Though this is rarely the case, the ideology of the majority race in a society is often imposed on those who are not from the majority race. Ethnic identity: allegiance to a group with which one has ancestral links; ethnic group membership can be ascribed by “outsiders” such as the government In Singapore, citizens are assigned ethnic groupings according to their mother tongue based on the four official languages: English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil. However, Singaporean Chinese may speak Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, categorised as varieties of Mandarin and Singaporean Indians may speak other Indian languages such as Malayalam, Bengali, Punjabi. (Detering et al, 2000) Inverted triangles of ethnic variation: Hypothesised that only during informal situations do ethnic variation tend to appear - During formal discourse, the correct identification rate for different ethnic groups was only 59%, but informal speech yielded 96%

Racist discourse: a form of discriminatory social practice based on race that manifests itself in text, talk and communication - 3 ways people construct racist discourse about the “other”: 1) Difference: the “other” is not like “us” 2) Deviance: the “other” behaves in a way “we” feel is amoral 3) Threat: the “other” is dangerous Linguistic representations of ethnicity: 1) Labels - Pan-ethnic labels: the grouping of related ethnic groups - Can be empowering