ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at some of the most important ways in which ethnicity has played a part in developing varieties of English, first of all considering pidgin and creole Englishes. It explores the phenomena of African American Vernacular English and Chicano English in the light of attitudes to English in education and the impact of various powerful language lobbies. The English-based creoles of the world have many formal similarities, especially in grammatical structure. DeCamp drew attention to the educational consequences of the continuum of Jamaican English being linked to social class, with the Creole stigmatised as the variety used by the poor, delinquent or ignorant. Among the grammatical characteristics of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) the aspect system of the verb phrase is the most interesting area of difference from Standard English or other vernacular United States (US) dialects.
