Conclusions: The Future of Research on Chicano English: Where Do We Go from Here?

Abstract

Much of our knowledge about sociolinguistic variation, particularly in the area of sound change, is based on studies of majority Anglo speakers in the USA, the UK and elsewhere. The research presented here, which focuses on a Latino community in Los Angeles, reveals patterns of language variation and change that are in some ways quite different from those found in majority communities. A close examination of such a different dialect and setting provides linguistic perspective, especially in terms of determining whether certain sociolinguistic patterns are universal, in other words properties of human language variation everywhere, or specific to particular types of communities. Both the fact that the community of Chicano English speakers is bilingual and the particular nuances of constructing one’s ethnic identity as part of a minority group have implications for language use and language change, as has been shown in this study.KeywordsEthnic IdentityGang MemberBilingual ChildLatino CommunitySound ChangeThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.