Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 1146

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Co-variation and varieties in Dutch ethnolect(s)

Authors: van Meel, Linda (1); van Hout, Roeland (1); Hinskens, Frans (2)
Submitted by: van Meel, Linda (Radboud University, Netherlands, The)

In a large-scale sociolinguistic project on Dutch ethnolects, conversational speech data (160 conversations) were collected from 10-12 and 18-20 years old male adolescents with Turkish, Moroccan and non-immigrant Dutch descents in the cities of Amsterdam and Nijmegen. Two phonological features of Dutch ethnolects were studied: (1) the voiced coronal fricative /z/ at the beginning of phonological words, and (2) the front unrounded diphthong /Ei/. We examined two variable properties of each feature: sharpness in voiced realizations of /z/, voicing of /z/, height of onset of /Ei/, and the degree of monophthongization of /Ei/, giving four linguistic variables: (z)-sharpness, (z)-voicing, (ij)-height, (ij)-monophthongization. How are the linguistic variables related to the main social variables: city of origin, age, language background of the speaker (ethnic origin), and language background of the interlocutor? The latter variable is interpreted as a stylistic variable, as all participants participated in three conversations with other participants in the project from three different ethnic / language backgrounds (Dutch, Moroccan, Turkish). Tables 1 and 2 show the social embedding of the linguistic variables, Table 1 providing the main effects, and Table 2 the two-way interaction effects (with statistical significance indicated by +).

Table 1 Main effects for the four linguistic variables; D = Dutch, T = Turkish, M = Moroccan

(z) (ij)

Sharpness Voicing Height Monophthongization

City - + + -

Groups: D vs. T+M + +/- +/- +

Groups: T vs. M + - - -

Age - - + -

Style: Language Background Interlocutor + - - -

Table 2 Two-way interaction effects for the four linguistic variables

(z) (ij)

Sharpness Voicing Height Monophthongization

City * Groups - - - -

City * Age - + - -

City * Style - - - -

Groups * Age - + + -

Groups * Style + - - -

Age * Style - - - -

As can be seen in Table 1, (z) and (ij) share a main effect for city on (z)-voicing and (ij)-height. For (z)-sharpness and (ij)-monophthongization, there is a distinction between the Dutch speaker group and the two ethnic (Turkish and Moroccan) speaker groups. If there is co-variation which suggest that there are two varieties with a main division between the Dutch speaker group on the one hand and the two ethnic groups on the other, we could assume there is one ethnolect with two regional variants. If there is co-variation which suggest that there are two varieties with a main division between Amsterdam and Nijmegen, we might say there are two regional ethnolects.

The social embedding shows how linguistic variables may co-vary by sharing common sociolinguistic patterns. We need to investigate if the linguistic embedding supports the concept of over-arching patterns on the ethnic level and what the primary divisions are in the sociolinguistic patterns in both cities. In addition, we will expand the set of linguistic variables by adding morpho-syntactic variables. We will use cluster and factor analysis to analyze the overall patterns of co-variation.

Sociolinguistics Symposium 19

Programme: accepted abstracts

Co-variation and varieties in Dutch ethnolect(s)