Unit Three: Language and Ethnic Group

A language or dialect spoken by a group usually provides information on its Social class Race and culture

Views about 'Pure Language' and Race

The Indo-European Parent Language At first, people believed that only people who belonged to the pure Aryan race spoke the original Indo-European language. But now, this view is considered wrong. Any human being can learn any language depending on the environment. Test Your Understanding Only the Aryans can speak the Indo-European language. (True or False) Any human being can learn any language depending on the environment (True or False). The Nazis' View towards German Hitler and his Nazis believed that they were a superior Aryan race. So, they wanted to have a pure German language. Hitler felt that this 'pure language' should have no loan words from other languages. Test Your Understanding Hitler did not want a pure German language. (True or False) Hitler pure German language/pure language (Match the following)

The Case of Serbo-Croat Serbo-Croat was a mixture of Serbian and Croatian. Serbians, Croatians, and the muslims in Bosnia spoke this language. But in the 1990s, Yugoslavia broke up into six republics. After that, the governments of Serbia and Croatia wanted their people to speak/learn pure Serbian and Croatian respectively. As a result, all mixed words were removed from the vocabulary of these languages. In other words, a Serbian or Croatian is identified by the language he/she speaks. This case of a 'pure language' affected the muslims of Bosnia. They could not choose between Serbian and Croatian. So, they changed the name of their language to Bosnian or Bosniac.

Test Your Understanding In the 1990s, Yugoslavia broke into ______ republics. The muslims of Bosnia speak ________________. At first, the muslims of Bosnia, the Serbians and the Croatians spoke a language called _______________.

AAVE
AAVE is the abbreviation of African American Vernacular English. As the name suggests, it is the English spoken by the lower-class African Americans. It is different from the English spoken by the native Americans. Characteristics of AAVE 1. 2. 3. 4. Many AAVE speakers do not have s in present tense third person singular. Eg: He go. AAVE does not have the verb is or are in the present tense. Eg: She not American. AAVE uses the word be instead of the verb is or are. Eg: He be nice. AAVE syntax does not follow the subject-verb agreement. It also omits the auxiliary verb. For example: We was eatin' and we drinkin' too. AAVE does not invert questions. For example: I asked Mary where did she go. AAVE uses it instead of the word there. For example: Doesn't nobody know that it's a God? AAVE uses double negatives. Eg: Can't nobody do nothing about it?

5. 6. 7.