Language and Ethnicity

Language and ethnicity are known to be closely intertwined (Giles & Coupland 1991). However, prior to analyzing interrelation between language and ethnicity I faced the problem of identifying the concept of ‘ethnicity’ itself. Thus, Fishman (1997: 327) points out that ‘ethnicity’ like other notions it is in a close association with, i.e. ‘race’, ‘people’, ‘nation’, ‘nationality’, is not “an exact scientific term”. Therefore it is not clearly defined and thus is open to interpretations (Ibid). In my search I came across a number of rather vogue explanations, and the most common aggregated dictionary definition of ‘ethnicity’ is ‘a belonging to a particular social group that has a common national or cultural tradition’ (MacMillan Dictionary, Oxford Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, etc.). Dictionary of Cultural Literacy does single out and include language into the ethnicity definition saying that it is an “identity with or membership in a particular racial, national, or cultural group and observance of that group's customs, beliefs, and language”. However, is language always an inevitable part of one’s ethnicity or the ethnicity of a group? Definitely, the most understandable case of interrelation between language and ethnicity is the one when a person is born and lives on a specific territory which historically had one dominant ethnos and one dominant language, so ethnicity is predetermined by close bound between language and territory (Fishman 1997). Thus, Tabouret-Keller (1997) gives an example of a school boy from Belize who identifies himself as Belizean because he was born in that country, he lives there and also is a native speaker of its Creole language. But there are two more cases when interrelation of ethnicity and...

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As a matter of fact, Wikipedia even has a separate entry for ‘American ethnicity’ which is claimed to be different from citizenship of nationality. 2000 U.S census data, showed the rising number of those who identify themselves as Americans. Furthermore, this increase represents the largest growth in numbers compared to any other ethnic group in the United States (Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_ethnicity).

Nevertheless, it is important to remember that language is a significant component of ethnicity. However, as any other (component of ethnicity), “it can be perceived and dealt with differently in analysis and classification” (Jenkins): for many ethnic minority groups language proved to be a cornerstone of their vitality, but for such countries as Canada it is rather an optional characteristic in formulating modern ethnicity.