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Dialects & Standards
LINGUIST 159 - American Dialects September 25, 2014
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Source: The Atlas of North American English (Labov, Ash, & Boberg 2005)
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What is a dialect?
Wolfram and Schilling (p. 2): Dialect is a neutral label to refer to any variety of a language that is shared by a group of speakers.
Dialect = Variety
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Dialect = Variety = Language
"A language is a dialect with an army and navy.” – Max Weinreich Examples: Serbian, CroaKan, Bosnian, Montenegrin; Swedish and Norwegian; Mandarin and Cantonese.
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Popular understandings of Dialect
“We went to Boston for a vacaKon and the people there sure do speak a dialect.” “I know we speak a dialect in the mountains, but it’s a very colorful way of speaking.” “The kids in that neighborhood don’t really speak English; they speak a dialect.” “The kids in this school all seem to speak the dialect.”
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Dialect = Language
Dialects/varieKes are fully-‐fledged language systems, not simply oddiKes, “broken English,” or “colorful” speech.
Chapter 1, Exercise 2
AddiKonal dialect exercises (Boston)
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Language Ideologies
Wolfram and Schilling (p. 10) Language Ideologies: ingrained, unquesKoned beliefs about the way the world is, the way it should be, and the way it has to be with respect to language. Video
Dialect = Language – isn’t that itself an ideology?
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Myth 1: A dialect is something that someone else speaks.
Reality 1: Everyone who speaks a language speaks some dialect of the language; it is not possible to speak a language without speaking a dialect of the language. Some dialects get much more a]enKon than others, but this social recogniKon is unrelated to dialect status.
Myths and RealiKes
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Myth 2: Dialects result from unsuccessful a]empts to speak the “correct” form of a language.
Reality 2: Dialect speakers acquire their language by adopKng the speech pa]erns of those around them, not by failing in their a]empts to adopt mainstream language features. Dialects, like all language systems, are systemaKc and regular; socially disfavored dialects can be described with the same kind of linguisKc precision as socially favored, presKgious language varieKes.
Myths and RealiKes
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Myth 3: Dialects in the United States are receding due to the influence of the mass media and populaKon mobility.
Reality 3: Dialects are dynamic; while some once-‐isolated dialects are receding, others are intensifying and diversifying.
Myths and RealiKes
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Source: The Atlas of North American English (Labov, Ash, & Boberg 2005)
Dialect leveling: The reduction of dialectal distinctiveness through mixing with other dialects.
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PrescripKvism vs. DescripKvism
Word Crimes Lauren Squires’ response: h]p://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=13521 Prescrip<ve Standard English: The variety deemed standard by grammar books and other recognized language “authoriKes.”
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Do you speak SAE?
Source: http://xkcd.com/876/
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Do you speak SAE? Formal Standard: applied primarily to wri]en language and the most
formal spoken language situaKons; objecKve standards prescribed by authoriKes, conservaKve about language forms
Informal Standard: applied to spoken language, determined by actual
pa]erns of usage, listener judgment essenKal to determining socially acceptable norms; mulKple norms of acceptability, incorporates regional and social consideraKons, defined negaKvely by avoidance of socially sKgmaKzed structures
Vernacular: applied to spoken language; determined by usage pa]ern of
speakers, listener judgment essenKal in determining social unacceptability; usually defined by the presence of a set of socially sKgmaKzed linguisKc structures.
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Vernacularity Continuum
Standard: the absence of socially disfavored structures Vernacular: the presence of socially disfavored structures
‘Op$mal’)MAE) ‘Op$mal’)AAE)
Speaker)2)
Speaker)1)
Informal Standard Vernacular
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Markedness
“MAE seems to be determined more by what it is not than by what it is.”
(W & S p. 13)
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Markedness unmarked natural normal general simple inacKve more frequent opKmal predictable ubiquitous
marked less natural less normal specialized complex acKve less frequent less opKmal unpredictable parochial (Hume 2011)
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Linguistic Subordination
Principle of linguis<c subordina<on: speech of a socially subordinate group will be interpreted as linguisKcally inadequate by comparison with that of the socially dominant group.
(Lippi-‐Green 2012)
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Why study dialects?