Everyone has a personal idiolect. We also have a dialect from either where we were raised or from whoever raised us. Then possibly influence on that dialect from wherever we have lived or currently live.
Okay, think for a minute...
What dialects do you find pleasing to listen to? Which dialects annoy you?
Which dialects sound smart? Which dialects may sound well, less educated?
Now think about this...
Our dialect rarely has anything to do with how attractive, annoying, or smart we are. Yet we all make judgements about a person's character based on their dialect. Strange right?
I got to thinking about this topic after a conversation I had a work. We were talking about the singer Adele and how she says, "Fanks" instead of "Thanks". There was some discussion about how it made her, "seem uneducated", she has money and should get that "fixed".
Well being the nosey SLP I am I had to chime in. She is not uneducated, well maybe she is, but it has nothing to do with her dialect! She is from an area of North London called Tottenham and that is the reason she speaks the way she does. Want a great example of prejudice surrounding Adele?
Check this out. I was a little shocked at the person's anger. Wow!
Now in America alone, we have hundreds of different dialects. I found a map, but it's so large and full of info, I could spend a good amount of time looking at this map. This map came from
this website.
I am a California girl born and raised. I say the work "like" all too often. I also use: he was like, she was like, dude, sick!, gnarly! I also say
awesome the same way I say
possum. I also say California with an interdental /l/. Say California....where is your tongue when you say /l/? For more typical dialects, check out this cool series from PBS,
"Do You Speak American?"
Some people may think I am a "Valley Girl" based on the way I talk, but I'm not! I was born and raised in the Silicon Valley and I am a very well educated gal (we have to be as SLPs, Master's degree Woot Woot!). Just like some people may think that everyone from the South must be a "cowboy" or does Rachel Jeantel (Trayvon Martin case) even speak English? YES, she does it's just not your English...
read here.
WHY? Oh, why do we have prejudice about the way people speak? I found
this article that had found some research behind the mystery. To quote Lippi-Green, "it is unacceptable to reject individuals based on their ethnicity,
but it is acceptable to reject them based on the variety of English they
speak (292). The standard language ideology is a belief that some
varieties of English are "more English" than others, and there is "one
perfect and appropriate kind of English that everyone should speak".
Thus, we may not realize it, but we may think that our dialect is a more "perfect and appropriate" way to speak. When in reality there is no "perfect and appropriate" dialect of English. The media and other outlets may just sway us to think so. News anchors Standard American English (SAE) anyone??
Something to think about the next time you meet someone with a different dialect than you! Don't judge them solely based on the way they speak!
Love how vowels change everything. Just some silliness for your day....
A dialect quiz can be found here. Here is a response someone posted to the dialect quiz! Makes you really think....
What dialect do you speak?
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