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Stereotypes And Language Of Stereotypes

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Recently, increased awareness of stereotypes has spread throughout society, often halting open discussions of these stereotypes. Many people have become hypersensitive to comments even acknowledging race or language for fear of offending others. Though awareness of stereotypes is a positive step, the approach taken has significantly decreased open dialogue among the different cultures. Comedian Russell Peters mimics socially recognizable dialects and language varieties using their linguistic stereotypical features to add a unique sociolinguistic element to his humor. By discussing these serious social issues in a light-hearted manner, Peters restores open communication of these issues. During his Green Card Tour, he imitated many accents, including Indian, Spanish, Chinese and Arab. These four accents will be discussed separately, followed by a sociolinguistic analysis of all three accents and Peters’ sociolinguistic comedy style as a whole. Peters is known for imitating his Indian accents and body language with a great deal of accuracy. According to Pickering, “Indian English acts as a pitch-accent language rather than as a stress-accent language like American English.” He demonstrates this characteristic consistently across all his Indian English accents, jumping rapidly in pitch between many words, making his mockery very authentic. He also produces these sounds by speaking more from the back of his throat as found in Indian American accents. When two people walked

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