[lg policy] Ghetto grammar robs the young of a proper voice

[Christina Paulston]

Gareth,
	I don't think I would make it so obvious to everyone on this list  
that you lack an understanding of linguistics.  Not to bore everyone,  
one example will suffice, I don't think the French would quite  
understand what you mean by tedious double negatives., n'est-ce pas?   
Or if it comes to that,  English speakers: " It is not for nothing  
Chomsky does not pay taxes"  was a popular counterexample during the  
Vietnamese war.  And why is "innit" vacuous, it packs in one word the  
meaning of three, "is it not" - surely the very opposite of vacuous.?   
Etc.  And metathesis with  words like ask has been around for a very  
long time -- it is not increasingly fashionable.
	Gareth, it is wonderful that you mentor young people but don't  
belittle them for the way they speak.  They learned it from their  
family and friends --  you really want to tell them that they are  
squandering the glory that was England by the way they speak ?   
Christina






On Aug 19, 2011, at 8:44 PM, Gareth Price wrote:

> More on language and rioting, this time from Lindsay Johns in the
> London Evening Standard on Monday ...
>
> In the wake of the riots, last Thursday evening, there was only one
> topic of conversation among the young people I mentor in Peckham.
> Thankfully, none of my mentees were involved in the disturbances. Yet
> almost all told me they had received the mass BBM broadcasts, written
> in street slang, inviting them to join in the thuggery.
>
> The English language is an incredibly rich inheritance. Yet it is
> being squandered by so many young people of all races and backgrounds.
> Across London and other cities it is increasingly fashionable for them
> to speak in an inarticulate slang full of vacuous words such as
> "innit" and wilful distortions like "arks" for "ask" or tedious double
> negatives.
>
> Full story: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23978523-ghetto-grammar-robs-the-young-of-a-proper-voice.do
>
> -- 
> Dr. Gareth Price
> Visiting Assistant Professor
> Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies
> 316 Languages Building, Box 90259
> Duke University
> Durham, NC 27708-0259
> USA
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