4.6: Ethnicity and Dialect

Ethnicity and Dialect

Ethnicity is frequently expressed through dialect, and conversely, a dialect may be a marker of ethnicity. Geographers contend that both are products of the particular spatial experience of each group. Each of the dialects spoken in the United States, or anywhere for that matter, bears the mark of the ethnicities and therefore source points of the people who once lived there. So for example, the dialects of New York City bear the imprint of the many thousands of Italian, Irish, and other second-wave immigrants that moved there in the mid-19th century. They learned to speak American English but retained some elements of the languages and dialects they brought across the Atlantic. Intermarriage and decades of living and working together no doubt created dialects that hybridized elements of speech into a new working whole. Consider also the speech patterns in regions of the US that border Mexico. They reflect the influence of the many Spanish-speaking residents that live there so that many places it is easy to find people speaking a hybridized English called Spanglish.

Figure Los Angeles, CA - T shirt. Questions of which words are appropriately applied to ethnic groups represents a struggle for power. This t-shirt was for sale on Olvera Street, a tourist destination. It's mostly printed in English. How Southern is your Accent? Take a Quiz

African American Vernacular English, popularly known as Ebonics, demonstrates not only the power of place but perhaps also the stubbornness of cultural change. Ebonics was a source of some controversy in the 1990s. The school board in Oakland, California passed a resolution recognizing Ebonics as a sort of language in 1996. This sparked outrage among socially conservative politicians and some media pundits, many of whom considered Ebonics as mostly lazy, street slang. The primary motivation of the Oakland School Board was to find additional funding to help students in their district better master standard American English by tapping into funds used to teach English as a second language to students that spoke English as a second language. Linguists were generally sympathetic to the argument made by the Oakland School Board and weighed in with studies that show that a proper understanding of a student’s home dialect or language was useful to teachers.

Figure : Tangier Island, VA: People living on this island in the Chesapeake Bay have one of the most unusual dialects in the US. How does the location of this island affect the maintenance of this dialect, which is said to echo the dialect of the 1600s?

The Ebonics controversy generated numerous interesting dynamics for geographers. First, a dialect is a great example of an everyday practice that stubbornly resists cultural change. In this case, Ebonics demonstrates that some elements of African language systems continue to appear in the dialects of many African-Americans, many generations after the end of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Many African-Americans proudly seek to preserve speech patterns because dialects help create and preserve ethnic identity. Second, the controversy highlighted the importance of geography in the creation, maintenance, and diffusion of dialects. The long history of social and spatial ghettoization of Blacks has helped preserve some relic elements of languages brought from Africa. The linguistic effects of isolation, noticeable among people living on islands, mountains, and in swamps has been partially replicated within the African-American community because Blacks have been spatially isolated in the US via racist policies and cultural traditions. It is also apparent to anyone who has listened to the speech of southerners, or white people who live among large numbers of African-Americans, that speech patterns easily transcend racial and ethnic lines. The Ebonics controversy of the mid-1990s was depressing because so many rushed to judgment despite their ignorance of geo-linguistics. The vitriolic response in the media to a suggestion that teachers might treat teaching students with strong dialects like students learning a second language. The dimensions of the controversy highlighted the importance of language in the politics of ethnic identity.