Little consensus exists about the status of language varieties heard in the speech of Chicanos, and in particular, the linguistic status of Chicano English. This criticism can be extended to many ethnic sociolinguistic settings. Critical commentary on certain controversies about the dialects of Chicanos is presented in this article. A model of the languagesldialects setting used by Chicanos that goes beyond recent typologies is proposed, made on the basis of explicit assumptions about the nature of the speech setting of Chicanos. On the basis of these assumptions, Chicano English is characterized as the autonomous vernacular dialect of native-English-speaking Chicanos. Four examples of this Chicano language setting model are presented, using recent national and three statewide demographic figures.
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