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<TITLE>Re: [Linganth] [Linguistic Anthropology] Listening to Prescriptivists</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'>On 3/29/07 12:15 PM, "Alexandre" <enkerli@gmail.com> wrote:<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'>Why do Michiganders think they speak the most “correct” form of English in <BR>
the United States? This one sounds quite close to a comment made by a <BR>
Midwesterner (probably a Michigander, actually) in the movie American <BR>
Tongues <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0303637/"><http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0303637/></a> . Can't remember the exact <BR>
quote (maybe it's YouTubed) but the gist of it was that "In the Midwest, the <BR>
way we speak is pretty boring." Yes, something close to Standard American <BR>
English. But not as an elevated dialect of the language. More as an umarked <BR>
variety with nothing fun to it.<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'><FONT COLOR="#000080">Coincidentally, I just showed this film in my class. The speaker is from <BR>
Ohio, and also describes his speech as “middle-of-the-road, straight out of <BR>
the dictionary, no accents, no colloquialisms,” and so on. Of course as you <BR>
suggest, the distinguishing feature of this dialect is that there are no <BR>
“marked” features, such as you find in Appalachian, or African American, or <BR>
some varieties of new York or New England. “Standard” English is really <BR>
defined by what it lacks, rather than by what it actually is. If it lacks <BR>
rules that tense the vowel in <I>egg</I> or that delete r’s in <I>park the car</I>, it’s <BR>
more likely to sound “standard.”<BR>
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This semester by the way I’m struggling with an African American student who <BR>
is one of the Black English deniers. She virtually took over my class to <BR>
denounce our workbook’s suggestion that “<I>Is it </I>a Miss Smith in this office?” <BR>
means “<I>Is there...</I>” She’s a non-traditional student in the College of <BR>
Education, which means she is or is destined to be a teacher. We’re all <BR>
doomed.<BR>
<BR>
Ron<BR>
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