"If you were to take away anything from my class it is this: don't ever judge anybody by how they speak."

Today, I spent most of my afternoon in the psychology lab with my roommate Jessica. I felt like a sneak, since I am by far...not a psychology major. Instead I went there to accompany her and strap myself down in front of the computer to get three papers done (which I ended up getting only two accomplished...) and some research for my linguistics class.

This quarter I am taking 'Cultural History of English' and unfortunately, we have reached modern English. It was one of the hardest classes that I've ever taken and as a true linguist...was incredibly frustrated at how much change, stigmatization, and standardization that English has gone through. I guess I really am a pure descriptivist. I am very open minded when it comes to language and people who speak English. Did you know that at one point, people did not judge other people by how they spoke? This was back in Middle English when it first started because the North and the South (British Isles) started to point fingers at which dialect was better (the North had the 'thou' versus the South that did not) and sounded more distinguished. Then the dictionaries came out and well, people now could point fingers and start making all these rules.

For my project this quarter, I have gotten together with two girls (one being British) to talk about rhotic and nonrhotic speech. What is this you may ask? Well you know how in America, some people don't say their /r/s? Such as people in Boston: 'Go pahk the cah!' is a perfect example. Also, the British are infamous for it, I listen to my favorite band Muse, and the lead singer consistently drops his /r/ in how he sings and speaks. Ex: 'They will not fooohhhce us, They will stop degrhaading us. We will be victooooious!' (Uprising) and 'Just how puuuhposeless and eeempty they've grhhown because the language confuses like computahs refuse to unduhstand how I'm feeling today...I'm frhheezing and losing my way, I don't need anothah map of you' head.' (Map of Your Head)

Well, we talk about how arbitrary this is because in the UK, inserting an /r/ is looked down on. It is associated with the 'cockney' dialect. Meanwhile in the US, dropping an /r/ is stigmatized. How ridiculous is that? All in all, saying your /r/ is standard and a very prescriptive thing. We compare and contrast two very stigmatized languages in two different countries: Cockney and African American Vernacular English (AAVE) aka Ebonics.

I mean really, why do we do this with language? Why do we always point at someone and say: 'You talk funny. Speak this way, not that!' It's just ridiculous. With the many linguistic classes that I've taken, Anne Lobeck (one of the top linguists this side of the country and my amazing professor) has said straight out: "If you were to take away anything from my class it is this: don't ever judge anybody by how they speak." Wise words because it has really, truly opened my eyes.

My part of the project happened to be to research the AAVE part of speech. It is such an interesting dialect! And I do not care what anyone says, it IS a dialect and not 'sloppy' English as many people may associate it with.

Here is part of my project I wanted to share with you all:

In America, the way that you speak is often times judged without realization. Commonly, people with /r/ less dialects are criticized as non-standard. In ‘A History of the English Language’ Gelderan quotes a study of rhotic and non-rhotic speakers in New York done by Labov. “Employees were asked for items that were to be found on the fourth floor and the use of /r/ was noted. The employees at the high-end store (Saks) pronounced the /r/ more often than those at the low-end store (Klein, which is no longer in existence).” This just goes to show how we regard the way that we speek. AAVE, AAE, Ebonics, is one of the most scrutinized dialects in America. This could be associated with class and race.

Often times, it is viewed as the language of ignorance and laziness, as noted with the horribly racist cartoon in this post.

According to the Center for Applied Linguists, “Because it has a set of rules that is distinct from those of Standard American English, characterizations of the variety as bad English are incorrect; speakers of AAE do not fail to speak Standard American English, but succeed in speaking African American English with all its systematicity. Linguists are less concerned with whether or not AAE is a language or a dialect (terms that are more important socially and politically than linguistically) than with recognizing the systematic nature of AAE.”

"No variety of English has been more closely scrutinized over the past half-century than African American English. We have learned much about its historical development and structural description, and its status as a legitimate variety of English is unquestioned. At the same time, it remains embedded in enduring controversy, due no doubt to the sensitivity of race and ethnicity in American society."

-Dr. Walt Wolfram (Sociolinguist), July 2007


I will defend AAVE as much as I will defend my mother's accent and the 'valley girl' speech that my little sister has. I have met AAVE speakers that are amazing with codeswitching, of which they will go straight into standard speech if need to in a college classroom...while at home they will speak AAVE. It's amazing.

When I go into the schools to teach, I hope that I will meet children that will bring their home languages to the classroom. I hope that they will be proud of the speech that they have at home, as much as I have now learned to be proud of the Tagalog that my parents have brought me up on.

Now...onto finish "American Knees" and get off my linguistic soapbox. Oh and I am taking my last linguistics class next quarter in the fall: 'Structure of English.' It's another Lobeck class...and she is a bit of a hard ass. I get to learn about grammar and how to teach it. I am completely petrified...but look so forward to it!

Until next time,
Ethelyn