Ethnolinguistic group

An ethnolinguistic group (or ethno-linguistic group) is a group that is unified by both a common ethnicity and language. Most ethnic groups share a first language.[1][2] However, the term is often used to emphasise that language is a major basis for the ethnic group, especially with regards to its neighbours.[1]

A central concept in the linguistic study of ethnolinguistic groups is ethnolinguistic vitality, the ability of the group's language and ethnicity to sustain themselves.[3] An ethnolinguistic group that lacks such vitality is unlikely to survive as a distinct entity. Factors that influence the ethnolinguistic vitality are demographics, institutional control and status (including language planning factors).[4]

See also

• First language
• Ethnolinguistics
• Ethnoreligious group
• Nation state
• Race (human classification)
• Regionalism (politics)

References

1. Fishman, Joshua A.; García, Ofelia (2010). Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity. Oxford University Press. p. 12. ISBN 9780195374926.
2. Holloman, Regina E.; Arutiunov, Serghei A. (1978-01-01). Perspectives on Ethnicity. Walter de Gruyter. p. 244. ISBN 9783110807707.
3. Bourhis, R.Y.; Barrette, G. (2006). "Ethnolinguistic Vitality". Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics. pp. 246–249.
4. Bourhis, R. Y.; Giles, H.; Rosenthal, D. (1981). "Notes on the construction of a 'subjective vitality questionnaire' for ethnolinguistic groups". Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. 2 (2): 145–155. doi:10.1080/01434632.1981.9994047.

Further reading

• John M Levine; Michael A. Hogg (15 September 2009). Encyclopedia of Group Processes and Intergroup Relations. SAGE Publications. pp. 252–. ISBN 978-1-4522-6150-8.
• Diarmait Mac Giolla Chríost (2004). Language, Identity and Conflict: A Comparative Study of Language in Ethnic Conflict in Europe and Eurasia. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-51202-7.
• Lamy, Paul (1979). "Language and Ethnolinguistic Identity: The Bilingualism Question". International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 1979 (20): 23–36. doi:10.1515/ijsl.1979.20.23.
• Sachdev, Itesh, and Richard Y. Bourhis. "Language and social identification." Social identity theory: Constructive and critical advances 211 (1990): 229.
• Giles, Howard, Richard Y. Bourhis, and Donald M. Taylor. "Towards a theory of language in ethnic group relations." Language, ethnicity and intergroup relations 307348 (1977).
• Bourhis, Richard Y. "Language in ethnic interaction: A social psychological approach." Language and ethnic relations (1979): 117-141.