'Example of an Ethnolect Based Essay\r'

'The computer address of an individual is a linguistic map of their identity and an indication of how they would c be to be sensed. Migrants who commence to Australia already possess the linguistic structures of their mformer(a) tongue, and these will affect the room they accost incline, forming an ethnolect. Consequently, a somebody’s language is a clear indicator of their past heathenish origins, and the incline they take up to speak will also hint how they would uniform others to perceive them. This latter is true for allone, as we all vary our language according to context.\r\n posting is a young Chinese student who has come to Australia two years ago from China to throw out his education. His lexical field is wide and varied, he is moderateted to use intricate syntactic structures and his emphasise and prosodic features evidence a safe familiarity with standard Australian English. However, it is still possible to find linguistic features which demonstr ates that he is from a Chinese background, that he is male, that he has travelled, end appreciate humour, and that he would like to be perceived as an educated person with further academic goals.\r\nThe phonological features of a person’s speech are the most obvious signposts to his or her origins or mother tongue. For example, business relationship pronounces the ‘ non’ in ‘not really’, ‘correct’, ‘just’ and ‘want’ by ending with a glottal stop (/?/), sort of than the voiceless consonant (/t/). This occurs as nett consonants are much less frequent in mandarin orange tree 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.\r\nBill also values the Australian accent, but there are also traces of Ameri flock English in his speech, notably his pronunciation of ‘ presently’, with the sound ‘kerâ€⠄¢ (Ameri female genitals) rather than ‘kar’ (Australian). This shows the subtle ways that every experience can affect a person’s identity as Bill has stayed in America for a short period of time, make his English slightly divergent from another Chinese student that has not had that experience. Local idioms and foreign borrowed spoken communication are also used in a non standard way by Bill.\r\nAn example would be the way he pronounces ‘ epicure’, by affinity; he assumes that all letters are say in English. However, since this give voice is of French origin, its final‘t’ should not be pronounced. Through the way a substance speaks, we could pinpoint his ethnic group. Although Bill has a wide and varied lexical field, he does not use many a(prenominal) idiomatic Australian expressions. This could inculpate that he is either still a appetiser and has not become familiar with colloquial language, or he may not value these expres sions ( much(prenominal) as Aussie, veggie, mate…etc) as he might mess them as low status haggle.\r\nThis could show that he wants to be perceived as an educated, cultured person, kinda of a rough Aussie. Even though English is not the subject’s mother tongue, he still has a fairy large lexicon, victimisation lexemes such as â€Å"lucrative”, â€Å"environment” and â€Å"gourmet”, this could show that he has been exposed to English unconstipated before he migrated to Australia. Bill also uses the word â€Å"reckon” and â€Å"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.\r\nA subject’s syntactic structures are another indication of his ethnic origins. The use of modal verbs is sometimes difficult for Chinese learners as there aren’t any tenses in Mandarin, and this is diaphanous in Bill’s speech. For example, in his sentence ‘Basically, I can choose from a lot of country’/ The lack of plural is evident here ( country/countries), but also the verb ‘can’ is used in a non-standard way, it is used in its travelling bag form rather than the more pass judgment past tense, as in ‘I could choose from a lot of countries’.\r\nLeaving verbs in 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 formed as shown before. For example, ‘my family member’, ‘at those stage’, ‘a lot of country’ and ‘different background’. Such non-standard usage also pinpoints Bill’s identity as a Chinese speaker as there are no plurals for nouns in Mandarin. Bill’s word aim too is sometimes non standard, especially when expressing more complex ideas.\r\nFor example, ‘aging population faces in Japan’ rather than ‘Japan too faces an aging population’. either these syntactic features contribute to his identity as a young Chinese student still in the process of mastering the English language. A subject’s 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 would like to be perceived as a English speaker\r\nFrom this, it can be seen that many features contribute to a person’s ethnolect, and from it we can deduce the subject’s identity and the way he or she wants to be perceived. Furthermore, migrants who come to Australia hump 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 united to h is 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. ‘\r\n'