:-) mostly -- McWhorter on "standard English"

[Jonathan Lighter]

>>Ignorance of our own way of speaking, of its "parity" with all
others' often concludes with shame and, often as well, arrogance by those
who adopt the power language of the day, as all of us on this list have
done.
Then why don't we have much power?

Also, if "way of speaking" means "how we talk when not placed on the spot,"
all dialects are equal in the sight of God and Bloomfield.  Beyond
a fundamental level, however, serious discourse in today's world requires at
a minimum the decent mastery of standard syntax and vocabulary as well as
more subtle conventions of organziation and presentation.

The discipline for the writer and confidence instilled in the reader that
grow from lucid writing is two of the things that allow vast, multiethnic
societies to keep functioning.

I don't care if my doctor, for example, sounds like Leo Gorcey or Reba
McEntire. But he'd better be able to summarize my case so
other professionals (and I) can understand it, and he'd better be adept
enough in "power language" to understand the professional journals that he
reads.

Of course evi;-doers will exploit dialect differences to bully, ridicule,
and tyrannize. The frequent reduction of the situation, however, to "good
dialects" battling heroically against bad "power language" (with the help of
heroic linguists) is a caricature of reality.

JL
On Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 9:54 AM, Judy Prince
<jbalizsprince at googlemail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Judy Prince <jbalizsprince at GOOGLEMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: :-) mostly -- McWhorter on "standard English"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I agree, Amy.  Students are well advised to awareness of their "dialects",
> to detach their embarrassments about them even as they strive to rid
> themselves of them.  Wise, as well, to have them read every poem of Tom
> Leonard, to listen to him, to dig into theirs and others' "dialects",
> uncovering the joys and magic of their words, phrasings, lilts, rhythms,
> idioms.  Ignorance of our own way of speaking, of its "parity" with all
> others' often concludes with shame and, often as well, arrogance by those
> who adopt the power language of the day, as all of us on this list have
> done.
>
> Paul Batchelor's excellent, brief* Guardian* online review of Tom Leonard's
> most recent book of poems, *Outside* *The Narrative*:
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/oct/17/poetry-leonard-batchelor-review
>
> <
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/oct/17/poetry-leonard-batchelor-review
> >Tom
> Leonard reading his prose piece called "Honest":
> ftp://ibiblio.com/pub/multimedia/radio4all/radio/akpress/leonard-08.mp3
>
> All the best,
>
> Judy
>
> "An Oxford Dictionary of An English Language" (poster poem by Tom Leonard].
>
>
>
> 2010/1/15 Amy West <medievalist at w-sts.com>
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: :-) mostly -- McWhorter on "standard English"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Well, maybe we need to start putting "dialect" in after "Standard
> > English". I think I might start putting "Standard American Written
> > English dialect" in my composition syllabus to emphasize its
> > linguistic parity with Appalachian dialects, Southern dialects, etc.
> >
> > ---Amy West
> >
> > >I'm now myself prepared to use the term "dialect", but always with the
> > >implicit proviso that Standard English (or American or Scots) is simply
> > one
> > >dialect of the many dialects of English, with no linguistically
> > priviledged
> > >position.
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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