Sitting in my linguistics class, my professor posed a question along the lines of: “Why are we a society that doesn’t allow discrimination of people based on color of skin, race, ethnicity or appearance but allows for discrimination against people based on their language?” I couldn’t help but agree that it was a very good question. The way one speaks and writes is vital in competitive roles such as job interviews, graduate school interviews, and in written papers in school. We are expected to use Standard English, and if we fail to do so the job will most likely go to someone who can. The other prospective student has the spot, and your English teacher has just doused your paper in red ink.
Why is this? Especially in speech, where the way we speak is a result of where we grew up and encompasses our identity. Whenever I return to my hometown after travelling, I know I’m back in Philly when people are asking “Jeet?” (did you eat?) “D’ya need a hean wit’ that?” (Do you need a hand with that?). And I love to, speak this way too. But when I say I have a meeting with my professor, or go into that job interview we are all one day going to have to go into, I’m not going to speak this way. It isn’t respected in the academic world or in middle to upper-class jobs.
Sometimes, even my peers and my family will say “Aren’t you an English major? Speak right.” If I handed in a paper written in the way I speak or text, I’d get an F. But this is the way I naturally speak and the most honest version you are going to get of me. When I go into that job interview or have that important meeting with a professor of English, I have to practice the words that I am going to use. I have to consciously decide not to say “I’m havin’ a great day, an’ you?” but instead to say “I am having a great day, how about yourself?” or something along those lines, being careful not to “drop my g’s” “use a double negative” or “use contracted words.”
My linguistics professor was concerned on the topic of dialect discrimination because, as any linguist will tell you, all dialects are equal. The way the Irish use English, the way Southerners in the U.S. use English, or the way Philadelphians use English are all within a system of its own that has rules of sentence structure, pronunciation, meaning of words, etc. So why do we find ourselves in this system that only respects Standard English?
Funnily enough, American Standard English used by Americans isn’t even correct. Prince Charles in 1995 accused Americans of “ruining” English. In his eyes, British Standard English is actually the Standard English and he did not appreciate Americans invention of new nouns and verbs. With so many dialects of English (Hiberno, Scottish, Australian, New Zealand, etc.) how is it that there could be one that is proper and correct?
As someone who is in love with travelling and hearing the unique words and pronunciations of different dialects of English, I’d be so disappointed if everyone spoke in the same dialect. And I wouldn’t be able to figure out who my Philly-fellow travellers were or have that sense of belonging right away when I hear the Philadelphia airport announcements or talk to the man selling me pretzels after my flight. The fact that linguistics exists in order to study human language shows that language is a living, changing part of the diversity that humans are. We have to remember to appreciate it more.
Colleen Cummings is a fourth-year student majoring in English with a minor in journalism and graphic design. She can be reached at CC763510@wcupa.