Ethnolect

Ethnolect (from the Greek ethnos "people" and legein "speak") is a collective term for linguistic variants or speaking styles that are used by speakers of an ethnic (actually: linguistic) minority in a certain language area and classified as typical for them. However, there is no uniform ethnolect that all people with the same linguistic-ethnic origin in a country speak: "There are many different ethnolectals, but there is no ethnolect" (Jannis Androutsopoulos). An ethnolect is a special form of a sociolect .

Causes of the emergence of ethnolects

Ethnolects initially arise from the fact that migrants have problems with the language of the country, which the majority of the residents in the country of arrival speak. Typical for recently immigrants are problems with pronunciation , a small vocabulary , unidiomatic formulations and only a rudimentary mastery of the grammar of the target language. Such forms of expression by language learners at a low level (example: “ I don't work ” instead of “ I'm unemployed ”) are called pidgin language .

However, ethnolects (if at all) are not only due to an inadequate command of the target language, especially since many ethnolect speakers have long since left the "pidgin level" of a language beginner, and are often born in the host country. The fact that many ethnolect speakers are able to adhere to the norms of the standard language can be seen e.g. B. on formulations such as “I will marry with her” : The speaker knows that “with” is formed with the dative and that “her” is the dative form of “she” . Many ethnolect speakers can, if this is expected of them, speak roughly pure words, construct correctly constructed sentences and consciously refrain from using words that are perceived as offensive. Their behavior is to that of dialect comparable -Sprechern who also learned to also in the default language (in this case the high level language) to articulate. In the course of their school days, many migrant children and young people learn to use ethnolectal forms and standard forms in a situation-specific and context-specific manner. It was possible to prove that these young people have German that is close to standard on the grammatical, lexical and discursive level. However, not all ethnolect speakers succeed in “ code switching ” in the standard language.

Ethnolect and accent

People who have not learned a language as their mother tongue tend to pronounce other languages with an accent even after prolonged use of the target language . H. adapt the sounds of the target language and their speech melody to the pronunciation in their mother tongue. In all ethnolects, certain phonemes of the target language are systematically pronounced differently, even if the speaker can produce the sound.

Simplification of the grammar

There is a trend towards simplifying grammar in all living languages. This is reinforced by the large number of immigrants who have to learn the target language. People with a migration background often forego learning the correct declension and exact endings because this "eats up coding energy that is needed much more urgently elsewhere, for example to compensate for deficits in vocabulary" (Uwe Hinrichs). Since z. For example, if the difference between “a” and “an” is hardly audible anyway, formulations such as “I wasn't hungry” are becoming more common in written language, and not only among ethnolect speakers. The "relaxation of grammatical restrictions" in standard language is often an act of rebellion.

Primary, secondary and tertiary ethnolect

The ethnolect category can be divided into sub-categories

primary ethnolect: the quasi-original way of speaking of an ethnic minority;
secondary ethnolect: the manner of speaking that is picked up by the media and often used as a stylistic device by comedians, only imitating the primary ethnolect and thus literaryized as it were;
Tertiary ethnolect: the way of speaking of people who have adopted the secondary ethnolect conveyed to them in the media into their own way of speaking, without themselves having contact with speakers of the primary ethnolect .

Due to the adoption of ethnolectal expressions by other ethnic speakers, especially by native speakers of the target language, there is a tendency towards “de-ethnicization” of ethnolects. A methodological problem for listeners and linguists who want to collect empirical data on ethnolects is that they often do not notice whether the way in which specific speakers speak is a primary ethnolect or a parody of it.

Ethnolects in the German language

In the German language , due to various peculiarities of ethnolectic speech styles, the non-German descent of the speaker can be recognized, provided that he speaks a primary ethnolect and does not only imitate ethnolect speakers.

In multilingual environments in German-speaking countries, ethnolectal forms of German have developed as lingua franca . Speakers of these forms of language refer to them as 'ghetto slang'. Some characteristics appear consistently and others only sporadically.

The following occur throughout:

Elimination of prepositions and articles in local and directional information (e.g. I go to the toilet or I go to the cinema )
Simplification of declination and conjugation (e.g. he recommends ), especially by omitting or weakening endings (e.g. from my opponent instead of my opponent or from my opponents )
Generalization of the verb 'make'
Using formulas like I swear for confirmation
Use of forms from another language for addressing, insulting, as interjections and discourse markers (e.g. lan, moruk )
a special way of conveying content that only explains a small part of the information communicated
rich prosodic - phonetic features

Occasionally occur:

Failure of the article in noun and prepositional phrases
Failure of pronouns and suppletive elements: e.g. B. when has with a meaning that can only be inferred from the context ( e.g., when did you see it? ).
Gender selection deviating from the standard language, e.g. B. the victim
object formation deviating from the standard language, e.g. B. I'm getting married to her
Word order deviating from the standard language, e.g. B. I saw my buddy

Ethnolects in other target languages

“Neighborhood languages” do not only exist in German-speaking countries. In Europe there are u. a. the “ Rinkebysvenska ” (in Sweden), the “ Copenhagen multiethnolect” (in Denmark) and the “Straattaal” (in the Netherlands).

Evaluation of ethnolect use

On the one hand, ethnolects strengthen the cohesion of groups using these varieties. However, they often trigger prejudices in outsiders . In the book Chill mal, Frau Freitag, a bus driver reacts to the ethnolect of “Emre”, a ninth grader with a “bio-German mother” (original phrase in the text), with the question: “Do you understand German? Are you able to speak German? "

When ethnolects are referred to as “ghetto slang” or “migrant slang”, then according to İnci Dirim it is a case of linguisticism ; H. about "a special form of racism [...] in which people are excluded because of their language or an accent". There is nothing funny about ethnolects. In the case of ethnolects of the German language, they are “forms of adaptation of German by migrants and signs of belonging to German-speaking environments. Ethnolects show that German is not merely adopted as a supplement, but is creatively appropriated and is related to the languages already spoken. Ethnolects should be shown the same acceptance and esteem as is required for dialects, ”says Dirim.

Uwe Hinrichs describes the long-term consequences of such a tolerant attitude: The migrants' “mistakes” are gradually being copied by the German native speakers, and at some point it will no longer be possible to determine who is right or wrong. At the same time, the willingness of the native speakers to perceive the mistakes as mistakes and to correct them spontaneously is decreasing. The grammar would be reduced, the inner cohesion of the parts of the sentence relaxed and many rules would be simplified or dissolved completely, the language would become simpler and more similar to English .

Speech carers reject the development described by Hinrichs as " language decline". The category of the “ restricted code ”, which was introduced by the sociolinguist Basil Bernstein as a term for the “deficient” language of the English lower class, is also occasionally used to evaluate ethnolects .

Jürgen Trabant criticizes both the “romantic” fascination with ethnolects, which their defenders declare to be “popular dialects ”, and the blanket rejection of ethnolects. The real danger for the standard German language is that it will become a “ sociolect of the losers in modernization ”, with the English language increasingly replacing the German.

literature

Verena Araghi: Let's talk a lot! The effects of “Kiez language” on standard German . The mirror . Edition 42/2007, p. 196f. ( online )
Uwe Hinrichs: I saw my buddy. How migration changed the German language . Essay. The mirror . Edition 7/2012, p. 104f. ( online )

Web links

Wiktionary: Ethnolect - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

↑ Everyday German. Kiezdeutsch (PDF; 57 kB). Deutsche Welle , p. 2

↑ Hadija Haruna : Weissu - is krasse Sprache ( Memento of the original from August 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 114 kB). fluter (magazine of the Federal Agency for Civic Education) No. 39, June 2011 @1@ 2

↑ Ingeburg Breuer: Is yes Hamma Alder . Deutschlandfunk , April 7, 2011

↑ Heike Wiese: Kiezdeutsch - grammar, information structure and social perception of a new dialect ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 994 kB). University of Potsdam 2010. p. 40 @1@ 2

↑ Peter Auer: "Türkenslang": A youth linguistic ethnolect of German and its transformations ( Memento of the original from January 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 54 kB). Freiburg (Breisgau), p. 2 @1@ 2

↑ Heike Wiese: Kiezdeutsch - grammar, information structure and social perception of a new dialect ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 994 kB). University of Potsdam 2010. p. 10ff. @1@ 2

↑ Ms. Friday : Chill, Ms. Friday . Ullstein, Berlin 2011, p. 330 f.

↑ Meri Disoski : “Do you have ateş?” . Interview with İnci Dirim. Der Standard , March 26, 2010

^ Jürgen Trabant: Controversy Kiezdeutsch - Errors of Romantic Linguistics . Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . June 9, 2012

[1] Everyday German. Kiezdeutsch (PDF; 57 kB). Deutsche Welle , p. 2