Copula deletion Compare the uses of the copula—the verb BE—in African-American

“ole” for old, “bes” for best, “un-erstan” [nərstn] for understand. Much of this can be represented in the phrase, It’s kind of hard, which is pronounced [s kɑnə hɑr]. Another major characteristic of the phonological system of Chicano English is the devoicing of z, especially in word-final position. Because of the widespread occurrence of z in the inflectional morphology of English in plural nouns, possessive nouns, and third-person- singular present-tense verbs such as goes, this salient characteristic is also stereotypical. Chicano English pronunciation is also characterized by the substitution of stops for the standard fricatives represented in spelling by th: [t] for [θ] and [d] for [ð], as in [t h k] for thick and [dεn] for then. Still another notable characteristic is the pronunciation of verbal -ing as “een” [in] rather than n [ən] or ŋ. Other -ng words such as sing and long end with a combined velar nasal ŋ and a velar stop g; thus sing is pronounced [sŋg], not [sŋ], and long is [l ɔ ŋg] rather than [l ɔ ŋ]. A further prominent feature of Chicano English is its use of certain intonation patterns that may strike speakers of other dialects of American English as uncertain or hesitant. As with speakers of AAE, speakers of Hispanic varieties of English who live in cities affected by the Northern Cities Shift don’t appear to be participating in these shifts, at least to the same extent as other groups. Grammatical Features Chicano English also has characteristic syntactic patterns. It often omits the past-tense marker on verbs that end with the alveolars t, d, or n, yielding “wan” for wanted and “wait” for waited. At least in Los Angeles, either . . . or either is sometimes heard instead of either . . . or, as in Either I will go buy one, or either Terry will. Another feature is the use of dialect-specific prepositions such as out from for away from, as in They party to get out from their problems. As with many other varieties, Chicano English permits multiple negation, as in You don’t owe me nothing and Us little people don’t get nothin’. Ethnic Varieties and Social Identification It’s important to reemphasize that some customary features of Chicano English and African-American English are characteristic of other varieties of American English. In some cases, as with consonant cluster simplification, these features are widespread in mainstream varieties, including standard English. In other cases, as with negative con- cord, they are not characteristic of standard American English but are shared with other nonstandard varieties. What makes any variety seem distinct is not a single feature but a cluster of features, some of which may also occur in other varieties. Ethnic dialects are an important ingredient in social identity, and features that are recog- nized as characteristic of specific social groups can be used to promote or reinforce affilia- tion with that identity. When speaking, an African-American man or woman who wants to stress his or her social identity as an African American may choose to emphasize or exag- gerate features of African-American English. The same is true for speakers of Hispanic English varieties who wish to emphasize their Hispanic identity. News correspondents on English-language radio and television broadcasts generally speak without marked social group accents. To emphasize their ethnic identity, however, some correspondents use a marked ethnic pronunciation of their own names at the conclusion of a report. A reporter named Maria Hinojosa identifies herself as mah-REE-ah ee-noh-HOH-sah, with a trill 6 in REE. Geraldo Rivera pronounces his first name heh-RAHL-doh. Such ethnically marked pronunciations highlight a reporter’s pride in his or her ethnic identity.