Example of an Ethnolect Based Essay

The linguistic communication of an item-by-item is a lingual map of their identity and an indication of how they would alike(p) to be perceived. Migrants who come to Australia already possess the linguistic structures of their m another(prenominal) knife, and these will incite the centering they declargon side of meat, forming an ethnolect. Consequently, a soulfulnesss language is a clear indicator of their past ethnic origins, and the side of meat they choose to speak will also indicate how they would like others to perceive them. This latter is received for everyone, as we all vary our language according to context. extremum is a young Chinese student who has come to Australia two years past from China to further his education. His lexical field is broad and varied, he is able-bodied to use complex syntactic structures and his accent and prosodic lets display a good familiarity with standard Australian English. However, it is still possible to find linguistic feat ures which demonstrates that he is from a Chinese background, that he is male, that he has travelled, potty respect humour, and that he would like to be perceived as an educated mortal with further academic goals.The phonological features of a persons speech atomic number 18 the most obvious signposts to his or her origins or mother tongue. For example, efflorescence pronounces the not in not really, correct, just and penury by ending with a glottal stop (/?/), rather than the unsaid consonant (/t/). This occurs as final consonants argon much little frequent in Mandarin than in English and thus they are normally dropped or replaced by a glottal stop. This could give linguists a clue on his origins or mother tongue.Bill also determine the Australian accent, but in that location are also traces of Ameri toilette English in his speech, notably his pronunciation of currently, with the sound ker (Ameri eject) rather than kar (Australian). This shows the sharp ways that every e xperience can affect a persons identity as Bill has stayed in America for a short period of time, making his English slightly different from other Chinese student that has not had that experience. Local idioms and foreign borrowed backchats are also used in a non standard way by Bill.An example would be the way he pronounces gourmet, by analogy he assumes that all letters are pronounced in English. However, since this word is of French origin, its finalt should not be pronounced. Through the way a subject speaks, we could pinpoint his ethnic group. Although Bill has a wide and varied lexical field, he does not use many idiomatic Australian expressions. This could mean that he is either still a dispatcher and has not become familiar with colloquial language, or he may not value these expressions (such as Aussie, veggie, mateetc) as he big businessman view them as low status nomenclature.This could show that he wants to be perceived as an educated, cultured person, instead of a rough Aussie. in time though English is not the subjects mother tongue, he still has a fairy large lexicon, using lexemes such as lucrative, environment and gourmet, this could show that he has been exposed to English even before he migrated to Australia. Bill also uses the word ideate and heaps which shows that he has tried to fit into his peer group and that he has a good grasp of the type of language used by the people around him.A subjects syntactic structures are another indication of his ethnic origins. The use of modal verbs is sometimes serious for Chinese learners as there arent any tenses in Mandarin, and this is ostensible in Bills speech. For example, in his sentence Basically, I can choose from a lot of domain/ The lack of plural is explicit here ( country/countries), but also the verb can is used in a non-standard way, it is used in its base form rather than the to a greater extent accepted past tense, as in I could choose from a lot of countries.Leaving verbs i n their base form is a feature of many Mandarin speakers, as in Mandarin, tenses are indicated by other means. Another syntactic feature is the plural, which is sometimes not create as shown before. For example, my family member, at those stage, a lot of country and different background. Such non-standard usage also pinpoints Bills identity as a Chinese speaker as there are no plurals for nouns in Mandarin. Bills word tell too is sometimes non standard, especially when expressing more complex ideas.For example, aging macrocosm faces in Japan rather than Japan too faces an aging existence. All these syntactic features contribute to his identity as a young Chinese student still in the process of mastering the English language. A subjects attitude can also show what kind of speaker he or she would like to be perceived. For example, Bill states that he prefers the Australian accent over the Singaporean accent. This would show that he puts a high value on the Australian English and w ould like to be perceived as a English speakerFrom this, it can be seen that many features contribute to a persons ethnolect, and from it we can deduce the subjects identity and the way he or she wants to be perceived. Furthermore, migrants who come to Australia know that they must learn English, as nothing unites a country more than its common language. (John Howard). However, each migrant, such as Bill, brings his own variation of English which is linked to his first mother tongue (in this case Mandarin). In this way, each person contributes to the rich tapestry of sounds, words and syntactic structures which make up Australias history, culture and identity.