Residential segregation and ethnolinguistic variation

One oft-hypothesized cause of ethnolinguistic variation is residential segregation. This review article synthesizes several strands of variationist sociolinguistic research, particularly among whites and African Americans in the United States, to show that the degree of residential segregation in a space does indeed have a strong effect on patterns of ethnolinguistic variation. In highly segregated spaces, ethnic groups diverge in their use of linguistic features, while in less segregated spaces, groups converge. Meanwhile, literature on housing policy indicates that residential segregation results from state influence. That residential segregation conditions patterns of variation thus entails that housing policy plays a role in this conditioning. This suggests that housing policy constitutes indirect language policy, in contrast to explicit policies which refer to some aspect of language use (media, education, etc.). In this situation, state efforts to separate ethnic groups have an indirect impact on the appearance of ethnolinguistic variation. Further research into the interface of language policy and variationist sociolinguistics is necessary, as housing policy carries clear links to variationist sociolinguistic theory.