[Linguistic Anthropology] Listening to Prescriptivists

[Kephart, Ronald]

On 3/29/07 12:15 PM, "Alexandre" <enkerli at gmail.com> wrote:

> Why do Michiganders think they speak the most ³correct² form of English in
> the United States? This one sounds quite close to a comment made by a
> Midwesterner (probably a Michigander, actually) in the movie American
> Tongues <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0303637/> . Can't remember the exact
> quote (maybe it's YouTubed) but the gist of it was that "In the Midwest, the
> way we speak is pretty boring." Yes, something close to Standard American
> English. But not as an elevated dialect of the language. More as an umarked
> variety with nothing fun to it.
> 
Coincidentally, I just showed this film in my class. The speaker is from
Ohio, and also describes his speech as ³middle-of-the-road, straight out of
the dictionary, no accents, no colloquialisms,² and so on. Of course as you
suggest, the distinguishing feature of this dialect is that there are no
³marked² features, such as you find in Appalachian, or African American, or
some varieties of new York or New England. ³Standard² English is really
defined by what it lacks, rather than by what it actually is. If it lacks
rules that tense the vowel in egg or that delete r¹s in park the car, it¹s
more likely to sound ³standard.²

This semester by the way I¹m struggling with an African American student who
is one of the Black English deniers. She virtually took over my class to
denounce our workbook¹s suggestion that ³Is it a Miss Smith in this office?²
means ³Is there...²  She¹s a non-traditional student in the College of
Education, which means she is or is destined to be a teacher. We¹re all
doomed.

Ron

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