Affiliation:
1. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
2. University of Michigan
3. The Chinese University of Hong Kong
4. University of Toronto
Abstract
Abstract
Within sociolinguistic research on English variation, Asian and Pacific Islander North Americans (APINAs) are
frequently described as an “understudied population” due to the relative lack of published studies that analyze these speakers or
communities. This structured literature review systematically characterizes the state of the field from a variationist
perspective. We find that while studies on APINAs have become more common in the last decade, different groups are represented
unevenly in the existing literature; for example, East Asian groups are commonly represented in the literature in contrast to
South Asian groups. Furthermore, the vast majority of variationist studies analyze phonetic and phonological variation, with a
theoretical focus on identifying participation in race-based varieties (ethnolects/raciolects) or in sound changes of the
“majority” population, rather than using the inherent diversity of APINA groups to bring attention to how race and ethnicity are
being used in Sociolinguistics.
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Company