Enquiry

What is ethnicity? Is there a white way of speaking? Why do people sometimes borrow features of another ethnic groups language? Why do we sometimes hear an accent that isn't there? This lively overview reveals the fascinating relationship between language ethnic identity, exploring the crucial role it plays in both revealing a speakers ethnicity and helping to construct it. Drawing on research from a range of ethnic groups around the world, it shows how language contributes to the social and psychological processes involved in the formation of ethnic identity, exploring both the linguistic features of ethnic language varieties and also the ways in which language is used by different ethnic groups. Complete with discussion questions and a glossary, Language and Ethnicity will be welcomed by students and researchers in sociolinguistics, as well as anybody interested in ethnic issues, language and education, inter-ethnic communication, and the relationship between language and identity.

First overview of the relationship between language and the construction of individual ethnic identity Looks at the language of a wide range of ethnic groups around the world Written in a lively and accessible style.