Pet peeve:

[conuly]

Please, everybody, stop referring to less-prestigious speech varieties as "valid" or "legitimate" dialects. I get what you mean, but what you're saying is that there is some sort of objective classification system by which some speech is more valid/legitimate than others.

And the people you're talking to already believe that, which is 95% of the problem.

That phrasing is not helpful.

Comments

[redbird]

Good point: we're not drawing a line with all the real dialects over on this side, and Pig Latin on the other.

[silveradept]

Is there an alternative that comes to mind easily? Because I would be likely to reach for the language of legitimacy against someone who thinks certain dialects are signs of low class or other pejoratives.

[conuly]

"AAVE* is as valid as any other speech variety."

* Or whatever.

[silveradept]

Got it, thank you.