Languages and dialects ! What's a dialect of a language? ! Dialects - PDF document

Languages and dialects ! What's a dialect of a language? ! Dialects of English: Languages, dialects, and power – Scots / Scottish English Linguistics 201 – African American Vernacular English Guest lecturer: Andrew Weir – Cockney April 19, 2012 ! A distinctive way of speaking One view of dialects No basis in reality ! Corrupt, debased form of “proper” ! Every language variety has rules language ! No sense in saying one variety is ! “Bad grammar” “debased” or “bad” compared to another. ! The utterances of someone speaking – “ We be workin ? Everyone knows a verb has to agree with its subject” AAVE or Scots are just as rule-governed – “ Norf London ? You can't say [ θ ]?” as someone speaking Standard English – “Dinna say dinna aw the time!” ! People who don't speak these dialects can get them wrong An excruciating example Just plain wrong AAVE ! Raspberry was writing to satirize a move " 'Sup?" the cabbie said. to use AAVE ('Ebonics') in some "No, thanks," I said. After pigging out over instructional contexts in schools in Christmas, I was trying to cut back on my caloric intake. "Besides," I pointed out, "it looks to me like Oakland CA. you've only got half a filet of fish and what's left of a ! Raspberry is African American, but doesn't small order of fries." speak AAVE. "What you be talkin' 'bout, my man?" he said. "I ! His attempt at AAVE is wrong. It would don't be offerin' you my grub; I be sayin' hello. You know, like, what's up?" never be produced by an AAVE speaker ! AAVE has rules that must be followed – — William Raspberry, Washington Post , 12/26/96 it's not just 'bad English'

What mistakes? A linguist's definition of 'dialect' "What you be talkin' 'bout, my man?" he said. "I don't be offerin' you my grub; I be sayin' hello." ! “Bad grammar” can't have anything to do ! Be marks habitual aspect. with it. ! She dancin “She is dancing” ! So what is a dialect? ! She be dancin “She dances regularly” ! What you be talkin' 'bout?, I don't be offerin' you my grub, ! Two speech varieties can be said to be I be sayin' hello — wrong dialects (of some standard) if they are ! The right forms are What you talkin 'bout? (with no mutually intelligible – if the speakers of the copula are ) and I'm sayin hello (WITH a copula 'm ) two varieties can understand one another. ! Rules for first person and second person are different! (More details on Language Log: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000937.html) Political definitions Quite clearly dialects of English ! Hindi and Urdu are “separate languages”, ! Western Massachusetts English yet are mutually intelligible. Linguists will ! Scottish (Standard) English talk of “Hindi-Urdu” as one variety. ! Canadian English ! Mandarin and Cantonese are “dialects of ! South African (Standard) English Chinese”, but are not mutually intelligible. Linguists treat them separately. ! ... Getting less clear Even the linguist's definition has problems ! AAVE? ! Where mutual intelligibility starts is not always clear ! “Broad” varieties of Scots? ! You can clearly define two ends of a – A'm awfu fashed wi yon chiel works doon continuum as separate (e.g. Spanish and the broo. A doot he's aw chuffed tae be French) the gaffer noo but A kent his faither, ken? ! But there's a gray area in-between ! Shetlandic? ! We won't worry about this too much, though

How do dialects arise? Minor examples ! Languages change all the time. ! Scots never lost Old English /x/ (but now is losing it, at least among young working- ! If changes happen in one place but don't class speakers) happen in another, you get geographical – It's a braw bricht nicht the nicht distinctions in varieties e.g. dialects. ! Middle English changed the sound in ! If this happens enough, you get mouse from [u:] to [aw], but Scots didn't undeniably separate languages. – There's a moose loose aboot this hoose! Big examples: Romance How do languages standardize? ! French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, ! What determines which dialect of a Romansch (Switzerland), Romanian: all language becomes the standard (i.e. divergent from Latin and originally prestige variety?) “dialects” ! Looking at what varieties are the standard ! French amour [amu: ! ], Sp. amor [amor], gives us a clue... It. amore [amore] < all from Lat. amor – England: City of London speech. 'love' – Scotland: Edinburgh speech. ! Romanian dragoste – borrowed from – France: Parisian speech. Slavic – USA: Pre-broadcast era: Northeastern. Broadcast era: Midwestern. Political and economic power Spread of the standard ! Centers of political and economic power ! Once the standard is established, it provide the standard language. spreads in various ways ! Indirect economic pressure: a desire to – Publishing based there speak like the successful people – Educational standards set there ! But also very direct political and – Generally the language of the most successful people – nothing succeeds educational pressures like success

Nation-building through language Nation-building through language ! In pre-Revolutionary ! Post-Revolutionary France: France, very many “Report on the necessity and means of “dialects” spoken annihilating the patois and universalizing the use (Occitan, Provençal, of the French language” (Abbé Grégoire) Corsican, Catalan, ! More in keeping with the ideals of the …) ! And also some Republic and the unity of the French nation if everyone speaks the same languages unrelated or only very distantly language (which obviously should be related to French Parisian French) (Basque, Breton, Alsatian) “Annihilating” local varieties The “Welsh not” ! Education and public ! Primary education in policy beats local Wales, mid-1800s varieties out of people ! A sign passed around (sometimes literally) ! Government provides anyone heard service only in speaking Welsh standard ! Student wearing it at variety/language the end of the day ! Shaming of was beaten schoolchildren speaking the local variety Modern-day Promoting the status of “dialects” ! Lately some things that were derided as “dialects” ! Things have improved for speakers of have been given more respect as “languages” languages which are clearly “different” ! Shining example: Catalan, derided under Franco ! Welsh, Gaelic, Breton taught in schools regime, now main language of Catalonia ! But things that are closer to “dialects” still stigmatized, although you don't get beaten any more ! Scots, Provençal, AAVE

Shitstorm! But attitudes are ingrained ! The Scottish ! “A joke? Certainly. What a waste of Parliament put taxpayers' money” together an ! “It's a common in-joke among the Scottish informational booklet in Scots to respell phonetically, as it becomes near- “Makkin yer incomprehensible” voice heard in ! “They purport to be in ‘Scots’, a kind of the Scottish patois (oh, linguists, go easy on me)” Pairlament” ! Can you guess what happened next? Why so harsh? Do they have a point? ! Popular perception of dialects being “bad ! Things like that leaflet may well be a waste grammar”, “spelt phonetically” etc. of taxpayers' money. ! After years of being told “not to speak like ! No-one is literate in Scots who isn't literate that”, this perception will tend to stick in English. around ! But one would hope the debate could be ! Also might easily be seen as “political held in informed terms rather than using correctness” terms like “slang”, “spelled phonetically” etc. The take-home messages Should people not learn the standard? ! Certainly they should! ! So-called “dialects” are not inherently less logical or grammatical than standard ! No contradiction between learning the languages. Just different. standard and holding on to one's “home ! What language becomes a “standard” is a variety” (be that Scots or AAVE or whatever) social, political, economic phenomenon. ! The problem comes when those varieties ! Non-standard dialects engender really are stigmatized as “bad grammar”, an strong feelings: shame (but also allegation which doesn't make sense. sometimes local pride) among those who speak them, often contempt among those who speak the standard.