Ethnolect is a variant of a language spoken by a certain ethnic/cultural subgroup and distinguishing them as a mark of social identity. The term combines the concepts of a ethnic group and language (-lect). A variety of a language is a form that differs from other forms of the language systematically and coherently. ... An ethnic group is a group of people who identify with one another, or are so identified by others, on the basis of a boundary that distinguishes them from other groups. ... Look up Culture on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikinews has news related to this article: Culture and entertainment Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Cultural Development in Antiquity Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Culture and Civilization in Modern Times Classificatory system for cultures and civilizations, by Dr. Sam Vaknin...

Example: African American Vernacular in the American English context as a feature of African American or Black society. Jump to: navigation, search African American Vernacular English (AAVE), known colloquially as Ebonics, also called Black English, Black Vernacular or Black English Vernacular, is a type of Southern American English lect (dialect, ethnolect and sociolect) of American English. ... American English (AmE) is the form of the English language used mostly in the United States of America. ... African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or black Americans, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan and West Africa. ... The term Blacks is often used in the West to denote race for persons whose progenitors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan Africa. ...

The term was first used to describe the monolingual English of descendents of European immigrants in Buffalo, New York (Carlock, E. and Wölck, W. 'A method for isolating diagnostic linguistic variables: The Buffalo ethnolects experiment' in D. Sankoff and H. Cedergren, ed.: Variation Omnibus. Edmonton 1981:17-24).

Because there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing languages from dialects, some scholars understand the term ethnolect as language or dialect.

See also

• Accent
• Dialect
• Language
• Isogloss
• Diglossia