LL-L: "Language varieties" 07.JUL.2000 (03) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 07.JUL.2000 (03) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Criostoir O Ciardha [paada_please at yahoo.co.uk]
Subject: Language politics

Dear all,

This reply is a few days late, and may appear
anachronistic, for which I apologise in advance: it is
a direct response to Ron's recent comments about
language ability in the mass of the population.

Ron, I think you give non-linguists too little credit
for their intelligence, and I really must take umbrage
with your comments concerning the exclusivity of our
'knowledge'. Whilst there is no doubt that "people who
have casually acquired the ability to process sound
shifts" are in somewhat of a better position for the
minutae of linguistics, my own experience is that
there are far more 'closet' scholars out there than we
ever give the public credit for, who are very aware of
the issues we raise but whose confidence has been so
shot at school and via the media that they daren't
expose their own thoughts to the public domain, which
is very, very sad, particularly considering how much
we could learn if they joined in: most of my friends
here have remarked upon issues of phonetics in great
detail - particularly in Nottingham English - and
cognates in other languages, displaying an uncannily
deep breadth of wisdom concerning linguistics whilst
outwardly protesting ignorance. The intimate nature of
language means that it is often an issue people easily
pick up on, even if they do keep it to themselves.

Indeed, often the linguist in us gets the better of
local knowledge and we as an academic community may
miss what is blindingly obvious to non-linguists. I
cite the example of Long Eaton English [saetdi^] but
Beeston English [sa^de^], which I had subsumed into
Nottingham English. After that my friends pointed out
a number of divergences between the two varieties
which were significant but which my linguistic
training would probably have ignored as irrelevant,
most notably in the regular occurence of Long Eaton
English clipped [i] in final position as [e^] in
Besston English or Long Eaton English [nae:] for 'no'
but Beeston English [na:]. Similarly, a number of
crucial lexical variations which I had not recognised
were pointed out, including the absence of Long Eaton
English 'twitchel' (usually translated as 'lane' in
Standard English but not used in this sense locally)
in its Beeston counterpart. Further, it was
highlighted by my non-linguist associates that the
'Scandinavian' glides of Long Eaton English were
considerably less apparent in the Beeston variant.

These factors led me to revise a large section of my
theories pertaining to Scandinavian influence on the
local languages here, and to the revision of recent
local history within this context.

There appears to be a tendency across the whole of
academia - whether intended or not - to take a
'superior' position to those 'inferiors' who are not
privy to 'the knowledge' and not part of the
community. Take for example my own difficulties with
High German; I had great difficulties reading it until
my mother - a fluent speaker - pointed out a few
crucial correspondences in passing e.g. death:tote,
toll:zoll, etc. From there I was able to further my
abilities in understanding German. However, my mother
has no formal or informal linguistic training and
worked out these correspondences for herself.

Further, many working-class people in England - far
more than most elitist academics giev credit for -
know more languages than just their local variant of
English and Standard English. Indeed it is not
uncommon to find a large proportion of the working
population conversant in French, High German,
Castillian, Polish, Urdu, Panajabi, Turkish, Greek
etc. I myself speak Irish Gaelic.

As linguists we should never denigrate or castigate
those who cannot recognise the basics of linguistics,
or make sweeping generalisations that "most people
have not acquired this [basic] ability and struggle
with even the slightest of differences [...] which to
you and me seem ridiculously clear."

So what if 'ordinary' people can't be bothered to
recognise sound correspondences and cognates between
their own languages and others? They do have better
things to do with their time (at least in their own
minds) such as labour for a pittance, do the free
domestic labour, be shouted at at school, worry about
bills, about their home, about how they are going to
get through the coming week. To them the issue of not
one of ignorance but one of priorities, and absence of
effort does not necessarily mean outright ignorance or
low intellect.

What we must always remember is that many speakers of
our Lowlands languages cope with very great
differences in speech on a daily basis and often
without every considering what they are achieving,
whether as bilingualism 'proper' (e.g. Dutch/Frisian,
Plautdietsch/High German, Northern Frisian/Danish or
whatever), denigrated bilingualism (Geordie/Standard
English, Scouse/Standard English), 'hidden'
bilingualism (e.g. Nottingham English/Standard
English) or simply between the language of one town
and the next (e.g., Long Eaton English/Beeston
English), and to suppose that non-linguists are
somehow so poorly versed in the obvious that they are
almost increduously inept is to ignore the facts on
the ground and to contribute - in a minor way - to the
cause of academic imperialism, which is as much
resented by 'ordinary' people as linguistic
imperialism is.

I hope have not offended anyone by the above comments,
but I stand by what I have said.

Until next time,

Criostoir.

----------

From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Language varieties

Criostoir:

> Ron, I think you give non-linguists too little credit
> for their intelligence, and I really must take umbrage
> with your comments concerning the exclusivity of our
> 'knowledge'.

Perhaps this depends on one's social circles.  My remarks were based on
observations during decades of life in various societies that are or fancy
themselves monolingual, disregarding specialized social circles of
linguists and language aficionados.  Yes, some "ordinary" people may have
the "knack" for it, but there are still thousands and millions who say
"Huh?!" at the sound of an "accent" and would react with a similar "Huh?!"
if you suggested that 'incredible' and 'credence' are etymologically
related.  I know of university students who wanted to stage boycotts
because their professors or teaching assistants had "Asian accents", for
instance using unreleased final stops that made a sentence such as _Take
out that book_ sound like _Ta' ou' tha' boo'_ to their ears and, as far as
they were concerned, rendered it incomprehensible.

Regards,

Reinhard/Ron

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