ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Ethnic varieties of Australian English

Nearly five million Australians, one quarter of the nation’s total population, were born overseas. Over 100,000 new migrants each year bring with them their family, their belongings and also their language. The combination of the migrant’s first language and English, along with their often frequent association with others new to the country, causes an ethnolect; a variety of English characterised by foreign lexemes, simplified grammatical features and phonological features similar to those of the mother tongue. Further generations use an ethnolect due to contact with many ethnic people within their communities (including family), and also as a way of expressing themselves as those of ethnic descent. Many users of ethnolects are unaware of any difference between their language and Standard Australian English, and many communities look negatively upon them. Language users of many ethnicities develop ethnolects, including Greek and Chinese migrants.

Ethnic groups are characterised by a number of factors, they are known for their different religious beliefs, traditions, cultures and values, as well as their language. One of the most well known ethnolects is the language used by many Greek-Australians. Greek-Australians often use Greek lexemes when discussing food, traditions and to express kinship, for example, the use of Gigia (pronounced /ja:jә /) for Grandma. Many users of a Greek ethnolect use discourse particles such as “eh”, “ah” and “aye” frequently, often to ensure the audience understands. Vowels may become elongated; where Australian English users will pronounce something with an “eh” or schwa sound at the end, and “uh” within a word, Eastern European ethnolects would use an “ah” sound. Consonants may change form, for example “t” sounds become “d” sounds, and the combination of these features causes words such as “tomato” to be pronounced “damada” and “bloody” becomes “blahdy”. Chinese English, often referred to as Chinglish or Chingrish (due to the lack of the “l” sound in many Asian languages), is another commonly used ethnolect in Australia. Chinese dialects are very different to English dialects, which results in a number of variations from Standard Australian English by Chinglish users. Many English consonants do not exist in Chinese dialects, causing Chinese English speakers to pronounce sounds such as /b/ differently, in this case as /p/. Syllables ending in consonants do not exist in Mandarin (with the exception of the “n” sound), and speakers tend to modify the consonant to form a separate syllable or leave the consonant out. In Chinese dialects, one character may be used to represent a number of things represented by different word in English. This leads to confusion, for example “see”, “watch”, “read” and “look at” are represented by one character in Chinese dialects, so may be used interchangeably by Chinglish speakers, for example “I am reading television”. A verb is often represented by placing “-ing” at the end of a word regardless of tense and “very” is often used as an adverb, for example “I very like it”. Singular nouns are often used in place of plurals and there is an excessive use of “the”, due to the absence of a Chinese equivalent and hence lack of knowledge of how the word is used. Language difference is just cause for the development of ethnolects.

Speakers of English as a second language tend to modify their use of English to better suit their first language, but this is not the only cause of ethnolects. Second and third generation Australians are known to have foreign ethnolects as well as those who were born abroad. Many Eastern European migrants in the mid to late 20th Century lived in large communities together, and the dialects they developed became conglomerations of many different cultures and languages.

The children of these migrants attended schools with other first and second generation migrants; sometimes two people of different mother tongues would teach each other any English that they were able to speak. Children without ethnic heritage that attended these schools would also develop ethnolects, as they were frequently exposed to them and often had teachers with foreign ethnolects. The syntactic and grammatical structures of mother tongues influence ethnolects and often lexemes which are synonymous in the first language are assumed synonymous in the second. In the semantic fields of food, tradition, religion and family, words are often borrowed from other

languages as migrants may not feel it necessary to learn English equivalents and are able to express things more rapidly in their mother tongue. Some speakers may be uncomfortable applying particular syntactic structures to their second language where it is unacceptable in their first and, as is the case with many Chinglish speakers, find some sounds awkward or difficult to pronounce if they do not exist in their mother tongue. Many second and third generation Australians feel obliged to stay patriotic to their heritage and use ethnolects as a way of expressing their cultural identity or feel that they need to speak in a particular way to “fit in” with others of similar ethnicity. This is one reason for some of the attitudes held towards ethnolects by speakers of Standard Australian English.

Users of ethnolects may be looked down on by outsiders or viewed positively by insiders. Those who do not have a foreign ethnolect often feel as though users are rejecting Australian English by using foreign lexemes and speaking with foreign accents despite choosing to live in Australia or Australian birth. Many users of Greek English are dubbed “wogs” and viewed as troublesome foreigners, no matter where they were born or their values. Many negative attitudes are held towards users of Chinglish, and they are often considered to be stupid or slow. Users of Greek English and other Eastern European ethnolects feel as though they are part of a group and that their ethnolect is part of their culture and identity. Members of a speech community generally view the language use of other members positively, however many migrants feel that their children should be as “Australian” as possible and expect them to speak with a general accent and use Standard English grammar and lexemes. Many migrants and their children who have lived in migrant communities since arrival in Australia are unaware or their language differing from Standard Australian English, as they rarely encounter people outside of their speech community. As one of the first dialects encountered when arriving to Australia, many foreigners believe ethnolects such as Greek English and Chinglish to be the national standard and may even make an effort to modify whatever English they know to be similar to these ethnolects.

The causes and features of, and the attitudes held towards, an ethnolect are many. Greek English is characterized by foreign lexemes, discourse particles and phonology differing from that of Standard Australian English and the general Australian accent. Chinglish is known for its semantics, syntactic structure and phonological features. Frequent contact with others of ethnic descent, influence of the mother tongue and a desire to show ethnicity causes ethnolects to develop, and they are generally viewed negatively by the outside community and positively within the speech community. Not only new Australians, but also further generations of Australians are speaking with ethnolects as a way of expressing their cultural identity. Although the number of new migrants decreases each year, the prevalence of ethnolects is increasing and Greek and Chinese English are only two of many ethnolects present in Australian language.