[Linguistic Anthropology] Listening to Prescriptivists

[Robert Lawless]

When I first moved from the South to the Midwest, the Midwest dialect did, 
indeed, sounds very "dialectical" to me. Specifically it sounds as though 
people were talking through their noses. Also, the "standard English" on 
the radio of national newscasters sounded to me as though they were talking 
in the back of their throats. Isn't what's labeled a dialect simply the 
speech of someone from a different region? To my ear, the least "marked" 
American speech is found in San Francisco. Robert.

At 11:41 AM 3/29/2007, Kephart, Ronald wrote:
>On 3/29/07 12:15 PM, "Alexandre" <enkerli at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>Why do Michiganders think they speak the most "correct" form of English in
>the United States? This one sounds quite close to a comment made by a
>Midwesterner (probably a Michigander, actually) in the movie American
>Tongues <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0303637/> . Can't remember the exact
>quote (maybe it's YouTubed) but the gist of it was that "In the Midwest, the
>way we speak is pretty boring." Yes, something close to Standard American
>English. But not as an elevated dialect of the language. More as an umarked
>variety with nothing fun to it.
>
>Coincidentally, I just showed this film in my class. The speaker is from
>Ohio, and also describes his speech as "middle-of-the-road, straight out of
>the dictionary, no accents, no colloquialisms," and so on. Of course as you
>suggest, the distinguishing feature of this dialect is that there are no
>"marked" features, such as you find in Appalachian, or African American, or
>some varieties of new York or New England. "Standard" English is really
>defined by what it lacks, rather than by what it actually is. If it lacks
>rules that tense the vowel in egg or that delete r's in park the car, it's
>more likely to sound "standard."
>
>This semester by the way I'm struggling with an African American student who
>is one of the Black English deniers. She virtually took over my class to
>denounce our workbook's suggestion that "Is it a Miss Smith in this office?"
>means "Is there..."  She's a non-traditional student in the College of
>Education, which means she is or is destined to be a teacher. We're all
>doomed.
>
>Ron
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