conuly: (Default)
conuly ([personal profile] conuly) wrote2004-05-21 07:56 pm

Let's review the difference between nonstandard and incorrect.

Standard: I don't have any cookies.
Nonstandard: I ain't got no cookies.
Incorrect: Cookies? None have I!

Standard: I am very hungry.
Nonstandard: I'm hungry, me!
Incorrect: Hungry very I am.

Standard: Nuclear weapons.
Nonstandard: Nukular weapons.
Incorrect: Nuknuk aprons.

Basically, the standard dialect is the prestigious one. It's the one that people are encouraged to speak. It makes one sound educated and well-off. Nonstandard dialects are equally valid forms of communication. They are no more or less complex than the standard dialect. They are spoken and understood by equally educated people. In some ways, nonstandard dialects can be more "regular" than the standard dialect, or may express certain ideas better. In other ways, the standard dialect comes out ahead. While there are right and wrong places for any language choice (Klingon is a fine language, but there's no good from speaking it at most weddings, AAVE will probably not get you a job as an English professor, and so on) the languages and dialects themselves are not wrong.

Unless, of course, you choose to view French and Spanish as merely incorrect Latin. If that's how you view the world, far be it from me to interfere.

[identity profile] demonkoala.livejournal.com 2004-05-21 05:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Nuknuk aprons is anwfully cute word though.
Well...until you find out what it was supposed to be.

[identity profile] demonkoala.livejournal.com 2004-05-21 05:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Better, but not better :P

[identity profile] takaal.livejournal.com 2004-05-21 06:46 pm (UTC)(link)
*giggling*/falling off chair (again)
Perdon me, but haff you eny new-cle-ahr wessils?

Okay, I now feel justified in inflicting my actual speech patterns on my fellow LJ-ers. Y'all've been warned...
(Conuly, I'm glad I found you, but you're gonna get me killed one of these days..!)

[identity profile] staircase-wit.livejournal.com 2004-05-22 07:55 am (UTC)(link)
aren't nuk-nuk aprons slang for condoms?

[identity profile] zarriq.livejournal.com 2004-05-21 05:25 pm (UTC)(link)
...Not to mention that AAVE is much more regular than Standard American English in many ways, plus double negatives were perfectly fine until recently.

[identity profile] demonkoala.livejournal.com 2004-05-21 05:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Nuknuk aprons is anwfully cute word though.
Well...until you find out what it was supposed to be.

[identity profile] demonkoala.livejournal.com 2004-05-21 05:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Better, but not better :P

[identity profile] takaal.livejournal.com 2004-05-21 06:46 pm (UTC)(link)
*giggling*/falling off chair (again)
Perdon me, but haff you eny new-cle-ahr wessils?

Okay, I now feel justified in inflicting my actual speech patterns on my fellow LJ-ers. Y'all've been warned...
(Conuly, I'm glad I found you, but you're gonna get me killed one of these days..!)

[identity profile] staircase-wit.livejournal.com 2004-05-22 07:55 am (UTC)(link)
aren't nuk-nuk aprons slang for condoms?

[identity profile] zarriq.livejournal.com 2004-05-21 05:25 pm (UTC)(link)
...Not to mention that AAVE is much more regular than Standard American English in many ways, plus double negatives were perfectly fine until recently.