~ (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Amy West]

My understanding is that a particular regional accent (Midlands?) is
taken to be the most neutral (most mutually intelligible?) and so is
used as the base for the "standard" American accent (for dictionary
prons, for broadcasting). Calling it standard doesn't change the fact
that it is in fact a regional accent that has been privileged by
being deemed the norm. Dictionary prons. list regional variants;
individual broadcasters vary from the "standard."

My understanding is that just as in historical languages we recognize
that the languages of our edited texts are in fact a construct
reflecting a dominant dialect or reflecting aspects (there is no
manuscript recording Old Norse or Old English exactly as it appears
in our grammars), standard American English is a construct not spoken
perfectly by anyone individual, and the standard American accent is a
construct not spoken perfectly by anyone individual.

---Amy West

(Who only had 1 college linguistics class, but has worked in the
lexicographic field, studies dead languages, and wishes she had a
heckuvalot more linguistics background.)

>Date:    Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:58:00 +0800
>From:    Randy Alexander <strangeguitars at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject: Re: ~ (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
>On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 9:20 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
>>>I'm not sure that a statement like that is so incredible.  If one took
>>>the stance that there is no such thing as a "standard" American
>>>English, then wouldn't that preclude the existence of any
>>>"substandard" forms?
>>
>>  In fact, that's not a term generally used by scientists in this field.
>
>Sorry.  I should have said "non-standard", which is certainly common
>enough.  For example, in Huddleston & Pullum's _A Student's
>Introduction to English Grammar_ (p2): "Alongside Standard English
>there are many robust local, regional, and social dialects of English
>that are clearly and uncontroversially *non-standard*."  This
>quotation is mainly talking about syntax, but doesn't exclude
>pronunciation.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org