Though I had originally planned to discuss language acquisition in my final blog post, the linguistics movie night I attended last week sparked a few questions in regard to sociolinguistics that I would like to address here. For those who were unable to attend the showing of the 1988 documentary, American Tongues, I highly recommended that you take an hour to watch it or at the very least click on the link below for a peek into the the documentary.
American Tongues examines American English dialects and accents and the perceptions attached to them. Having grown up in both the Northeast and South and currently attending university on the West Coast, I would venture to say that I have had more personal experiences with different American English dialects than most. Even still, I found the documentary fascinating. There was something particularly striking about hearing the different accents and dialects right after one another, and in some shots overlapping one another, and immediately after that hearing how each of these dialects were perceived. And thus, how the speaker was impacted socially.
What I can’t seem to understand is why certain words are considered slang. (And here I am working off the belief that typically when slang is spoken the speaker is perceived more negatively than if they were to use Standard American English.) And yet other words are accepted as dialectical terms, and their speakers are void of any judgement, despite being less familiar than some slang. Is it that our judgement of speech that strays from Standard American English is simply arbitrary? Could there perhaps be some unwritten rule of what constitutes “good” variations and “bad” variations from Standard American English? Or is it our own prejudice against the race or socioeconomic status of the speaker that flags certain terms as slang rather than a different, but still socially acceptable, dialect?
I believe that the latter is almost certainly the case. I grew up in Texas where the regional dialect is strong. Accents are thick and there are words that our northern counterparts would be hard pressed to either use themselves or understand at all (e.g. y’all). Similarly, there are also many phrases that are unique to the southern dialect. Let’s use “fixin to” as an example. It’s a phrase I’ve heard come from the mouths of everyone from southern teachers to southern CEOs. “Fixin to” is synonymous to the Standard American English words “intending to”. It’s known as a variation, sure, but never in my life have I heard it recognized as slang. On the other hand, there’s the phrase “finna which also means “intending to”, but is predominately used by African Americans. While it is recognized by linguists as African American Vernacular English, socially it’s all too often just written off as slang. I suppose one could claim that there is something in the syntax or common usage of the phrase “finna” that distinguishes it as a subpar variation of Standard American English, rather than simply a variation like “fixin to”. However, given the country’s history of perceived white superiority, I think it is far more likely that prejudice against speakers are what makes certain words judged “slang” as opposed to simple difference in dialect.
I’d like to know, what are your thoughts on the matter? Also, if your natural dialect was considered “slang” and judged, what would you do? Do you believe that such sociolinguistic impact is a threat to certain dialects?
Here you will find a brief Youtube clip from the documentary that sparked this post, American Tongues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXGuCaApR7U
I don’t have extensive knowledge of American dialects and their corresponding slang. However, when I think of a language and its dialects, I think of Hindi, the “universal” language of India, and its numerous dialects. As someone who knows many of the dialects, many of the dialects share common themes, not unlike how cognates in Spanish sound similar to English words. Even with different dialects appearing to be “different languages” to an outsider, there can still be prejudice associated with a dialect, just like your example of “finna” and “fixing to.” The prejudice associated with certain Indian dialects is not as much due to the variation in pronunciation of the same word as it is the diction. Certain words bring about pre-conceived notions of people from the area where the dialect is spoken. I think understanding the sociolinguistic impact on Indian dialects will be a very interesting area to look into, but I cannot comment on what I think will happen due to the complexity of the issue.
ReplyDeleteI think you're probably right that prejudice against certain groups of speakers and their associated dialects is what causes certain words to be judged as slang. But just to play devil's advocate, at least in the example you gave with "fixin to" and "finna", perhaps the length of time that the expression has been around also plays a factor in its categorization as a dialect or slang. I don't know this for certain, but I think the expression "fixin to" has been used for significantly longer than "finna", which I believe is a relatively new expression. If this is the case, maybe time is a relevant factor in determining whether an expression will be categorized as dialect or slang. Perhaps the longer an expression has been around, the more commonly accepted it is (despite being isolated to a particular region or group), while the newer, alternate language expressions are initially regarded as slang. Just a thought!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post, Nahva! I had never pondered the actual difference between an accent and a dialect. I guess I always assumed the difference was so minute, that I would even use the words interchangeably. And I guess I was somewhat right! On that note, I agree with your intuition about "fixin' to" and "finna". I find it odd that they are clustered in to two separate groups when they in fact mean the same thing. Thus, I must presume that this separation is due to prejudice and the deep racial history of the United States. On the other hand, I think it is a valid point that "fixin" has been around for a lot longer than "finna", and perhaps that is the reason one is considered dialect and the other slang. With that in mind, I would be interested to know about similar examples regarding different racial groups in the United States to see if this is a recurring phenomena or a single case. Studying this would open windows of insight into the question of whether time or prejudice is the determining factor, or both.
ReplyDeleteLoved your post Nahva! Like Nicolas, I had never really considered what makes certain expressions slang over others. After some initial thought, I would say that 'context' of use could be very useful in determining where/when/how that expression should be used - and ultimately whether that means the expression is slang or not. The example comparing "fixin to" and "finna" could be analyzed under this more precise scope. Does the southern CEO use "fixin to" in a board meeting? Would the African American CEO use "finna" in a similar board meeting?
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that although context can be useful, it can also be a trap. Slang is what popular opinion believes is slang. Perhaps some individual doesn't believe "finna" is slang but will give into social pressures and use it only in certain contexts. In this case, we come back to the question of what makes certain words slang... socioeconomic/racial prejudice?
This post brings up some good points, and as someone who is fascinated by how language can affect society, this is super interesting. To Quentin's question above about whether the souther CEO would use "fixin to" in a board meeting or if an African American CEO would use "finna" in a meeting...the answer is probably no. It fascinates me because even if that is how someone speaks, they shift their language to a more formal speech. It speaks to how much America has placed a higher value on Standard English than any other form or dialect. If you speak a "certain" way, you are usually thought of to be less educated or less formal. As a society we have chosen to place a higher value on Standard English, and I wonder how that seeps into the racial and socioeconomic biases that exist today.
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