Ethnolinguistische

Ethnolinguistics, or ethnolinguistic studies, is an interdisciplinary field that examines the relationships between language, ethnicity, and social identity. It investigates how language use signals and constructs ethnic belonging, how different ethnic groups organize and perceive linguistic variation, and how power, policy, and social change shape language choices.

The field covers topics such as language variation and selection among ethnic communities, bilingualism and code-switching, language maintenance and shift, language endangerment and revival, and the role of language in rituals, politics, and education. It also analyzes language ideologies, stereotypes, and representations that accompany ethnicity.

Methodology includes ethnography, sociolinguistic interviews, discourse analysis, and participant observation; data sources range from casual conversation to scripted media and official discourse.

Ethnolinguistic vitality, a concept associated with Joshua Fishman, assesses the likelihood that an ethnic language will persist based on intergenerational transmission, group size, institutional support, and status.

The term is used in German-speaking and Dutch-speaking scholarship as ethnolinguistische and is closely connected to sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology. Related concepts include ethnolinguistic repertoire, describing the range of language varieties that an individual or group uses across social situations.

Ethnolinguistics has practical implications for language policy, education, and minority language rights, while also emphasizing the ethical need to avoid essentializing ethnicity and language and to account for contextual complexity in research.