Multilingual ethnic group
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A multi-lingual ethnic group is an ethnic group which has various subgroups with different primary languages. These subgroups consider themselves one ethnic group due to shared or common ancestry, culture and/or history. Language, however, is not the sole criteria for a group to be considered part of an ethnic group. There are groups of people who share common linguistical roots, but do not consider themselves part of an ethnic group.
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[edit] Examples
[edit] The Beja
The Beja of Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt is an example of a multi-lingual ethnic group. Among the various groups that all consider themselves to be Beja, there are three primary languages: Tigre, To Bedawie (Beja) and Sudanese Arabic. Some are bilingual or trilingual, while some are monolingual in one these three languages.
[edit] The Visayans
The Visayans of the Philippines is another example of a multi-lingual ethnic group. Several groups in central and southern Philippines refer to themselves as Visayan, yet each group speaks a language unintelligible to the others. These groups refer to their languages as Binisaya, which literally means “the way of the Visaya.” The Visayan languages with the most number of speakers are Cebuano, at 20 million; Illongo, at 7 million; and Waray-Waray, at 3 million. More than 40% of Filipinos have Visayan ancestry.
[edit] The Dinka
The Dinka of Sudan speak a range of dialects comprising five separate languages, yet clearly consider themselves to be one people.
[edit] The Moros
The Moros of the Philippines speak Southern Philippine and Visayan languages (notably the Tausugs who do not consider themselves 'Bisaya' in the ethnicity context).
[edit] Yugurs
The Yugur people in Gansu province of China speak four languages: Eastern Yugur (Mongolic), Western Yugur (Turkic), Hezhou (Sinitic vocabulary with Altaic grammar) and Tibetan. They use Chinese for intercommunication.
