Ethnolect

An ethnolect is generally defined as a language variety that marks speakers as members of ethnic groups who originally used another language or distinctive variety. The cited article gives a second definition, any speech variety, whether language, dialect or subdialect, associated with a specific ethnic group, and says it may be a distinguishing mark of social identity both within the group and for outsiders. The term combines the concepts of an ethnic group and dialect, was first used to describe the monolingual English of descendants of European immigrants in Buffalo, New York, and in North American sociolinguistics has traditionally described the English of ethnic immigrant groups. Varieties the atlas records as ethnolects are grouped under this entry.