Standard US English Dialect?

[Gordon, Matthew J.]

For another example of Dennis's research in this area, you can read a full-text essay at:
http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/prejudice/attitudes/

The titles ("Where the worst English is spoken." "They speak really bad English down south and in New York City") reference folk beliefs about American dialects. 


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Benjamin Barrett
Sent: Tue 4/15/2008 5:45 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject:      Re: Standard US English Dialect?
 
Not sure if the attributions are exactly correct below, so check the
archives, but the paper is about dialectical perception as described at

http://tinyurl.com/4r6bfy

Papers in linguistics frequently use double entendres and playfully
misleading statements to entice readers. BB

On Apr 15, 2008, at 3:26 PM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:

>
> Pay attention Scott.  Did I say right or wrong English?  No.
> Someone here has written about "Where the worst English is spoken"
> and thus they have a clue about "best" English.  Why don't you
> lecture that person about "right and wrong" and get off my case.
>
>
>
>>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Scot LaFaive
>> Subject: Re: Standard US English Dialect?
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>> I would think that the best English as a standard should be easiest
>> to understant.
>>> I would be interested to know which accent is clearest and least
>>> misunderstood.
>>
>> There are so many things wrong with these statements that I'm a
>> little
>> befuddled about how to respond.
>>
>> I hope you see that what is easy for one person to understand isn't
>> necessarily easy for another. Being from the Midland North I might
>> have trouble understanding someone from the bayous of Louisiana, but
>> they should understand each other quite well. It seems like you
>> consistently fail to realize this (or just enjoy provoking others):
>> "proper" English (or any language) is relative to who is speaking and
>> listening. There is no right or wrong English when people are
>> communicating.
>>
>> Scot
>>
>>>>
>>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>>> -----------------------
>>>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>>> Poster: David Bowie
>>>>> Subject: Re: Standard US English Dialect?
>>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>
>>>>> From: Dennis Preston
>>>>>> Poster: LanDi Liu
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>> As far as NYC middle class goes, that means very little as far
>>>>>>> as
>>>>>>> accents go. Because of the large amount of people that live in
>>>>>>> NYC
>>>>>>> that weren't born there, and the fact that different boroughs
>>>>>>> in NYC
>>>>>>> have different accents to begin with, and the fact that class
>>>>>>> and
>>>>>>> accent aren't so easily correlated anymore, I don't think
>>>>>>> anyone could
>>>>>>> say what a NYC middle class accent is. So probably the people in
>>>>>>> Japan and China (and elsewhere) think capital = standard. Most
>>>>>>> people
>>>>>>> think Beijing Chinese is standard, but that's a myth as well.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Washington DC is the capital of the US, not NYC.
>>>>>
>>>>> And of course, in dInIs's own work (see "Where the worst English
>>>>> is
>>>>> spoken"), you find that Washington DC does remarkably well in US
>>>>> folks'
>>>>> ratings for correctness--so maybe this capital==standard (or at
>>>>> least
>>>>> nearly standard) thing works in the US, as well.
>>>>>
>>>>> David, who grew up near enough to DC to disbelieve that NYC's
>>>>> really as
>>>>> important a city as it seems to believe
>>>>>
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Dennis R. Preston
>>>> University Distinguished Professor
>>>> Department of English
>>>> Morrill Hall 15-C
>>>> Michigan State University
>>>> East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>>>>
>>>>

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