[Linguistic Anthropology] Listening to Prescriptivists

[Fitch, Kristine L]

My master's degree advisor said it best:  "A dialect is what somebody
else speaks."  Also "a language is a dialect with an army and a navy."  

 

Kristine Fitch

 

________________________________

From: owner-linganth at ats.rochester.edu
[mailto:owner-linganth at ats.rochester.edu] On Behalf Of Robert Lawless
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 12:44 PM
To: linganth at cc.rochester.edu
Subject: Re: [Linganth] [Linguistic Anthropology] Listening to
Prescriptivists

 

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/>
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0303637/>
<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

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/linganth/attachments/20070329/243f9932/attachment.htm>