Early Childhood Language Development

Any time there is a change in the social environment; this change either indirectly or directly alters the language. For example, MacNeil argues “as society changes, so does language, and American society has changed enormously in recent decades” (306). He believes that this change has come in the form of different dialects within America, which has a positive affect on the language (311). Similarity, McGrey argues that changes in globalization have let foreign languages within the United States change over time in a

Using dialect in society is natural and people can often not control how they sound. When that same person writes however they are expected to drop their dialect and only use proper english. Vershawn Ashanti Young discusses this topic in his article “Should Writer’s Use They Own English?”. Young has several good points including that their accent comes through their writing and that “code meshing” can be effective in a person's’ writing. On the contrary, I agree more with the fact that we need a “universal” way of speaking in America, because of the fact that it is harder to learn several “languages” as a child and it would be almost impossible for people from other countries to learn all the slang if we don't have one set way of speaking.

Language is a system in which sequences of sounds make up words to signify a person, place, idea, or object and eventually becomes a tool through which we communicate. Language development starts at birth with crying. Infants cry to communicate their needs are not being met. At around six months infants begin to form consonant- vowel chains; this is the start of babbling, an essential pre-linguistic skill and milestone in language development. Around the age of eleven months the child will say begin to say their first words, and language continues to develop throughout life. Like many other areas of development language development is influenced by the culture the infant grows up in.

United States of America, small in history but large in diversity continues to face new challenges with language as time continues to turn. In the documentary “Do You Speak American?” Robert MacNeil analyzes the English language and reveals many dialects that culturally defines us. Regional dialect is one of the many strongholds of all cultures and now it has reached its’ zenith and today it is slowly declining because it does not possess the human nature of advancement. Optimistically, it allows people to learn how to cooperate with each other. In order to advance and adopt a person has to change; I believe that the acceptance of cultural adaptations, diversity, and industrialization can prove that the decline of speech does not cause a

At Morgan State University, the student population is uniquely diverse. Students come from different parts of the United States to gain a degree and to experience all that Morgan has to offer. As of Fall 2016, the most frequent state of residency included: Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, Virginia, and other states ("Enrollment Data” 1). These states not only brought a variety of personalities, but as well as a variety of languages. Students from each of these states have a dialect specific to their region in where they live. A case study of dialect on the campus of Morgan State University revealed the phonetic, morphological, and lexical differences of the American English language in the Northern and Southern

The second is the overriding concept that Midwestern English is inherently “accent-less,’ when compared to other variations of English within the United States. While Midwestern English is distinct enough to be included in many hand-drawn dialect maps of the US, the Midwestern “accent” is often labeled as “unknown accent” (Hartley 2005) (Preston et al 2002). This is because many people outside of the Midwest believe that the region has no distinguishable accent or linguistic feature to stereotype (Preston et al 2002). As much of the Midwest was (and continues to be) agriculturally based, there are very few distinct “working class accents,” as are common in New York City (Hartley 2005).

The United States of America is one of the world’s most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations. Even though there is not an official national language, most Americans speak Standard American English (SAE). However, the most prevalent native English vernacular dialect in the United States is African American Vernacular English (AAVE). According to Sharon Vaughn, AAVE is “a dialect used by some African Americans” (110). In order to examine AAVE, one must explore the origins, grammatical features, and prominent resolutions, which created a precedent for educating students that speak dialects other than Standard American English.

Broadly speaking, many African American children speak what has been called variously “African American English” (AAE). Other terms include African American Language (AAL), African American Vernacular English (AAVE), Black language, and Ebonics. AAE is spoken by a large percentage of the population of Americans of African descent. Some forms of African American English can be distinguished from Standard American English by features of phonology, grammar and vocabulary (Fromkin et al., 2011). While some features of AAE are apparently unique to this variety, specifically in its structure, it also shares commonalities with other varieties of English, including Standard English (Siegel, 2012).

As a child, profanity was used as frequently as one said my name, and with that came socially unacceptable slang, cutting off the ending syllables in every other word. As a child, or even as an evolving adolescent, the word dialect did not exist. There was only that uncomfortable feeling I got when around someone who spoke in a dissimilar way. As I got older and learned the socially acceptable academic dialect, -learning the difference between their, there, and they’re, for example- I made the conscious effort to speak that way in public, but to regress back to the one I was taught in my upbringing, if only to ensure I blended in and did not draw unnecessary attention to myself. This made me

I am from Salisbury, MD, so I never thought I had a different dialect from the rest of Maryland until I came to Towson. My friends tease me at times because I “sound so Southern.” Due to the fact that some of my family is from Alabama, I have picked up on a few of those southern traits. My father tends to say “warsh” instead of “wash,” and a lot of my family members tend to leave out the “g” in words that end with “ing.” Instead of asking, “Are you guys going to the store?” I would ask, “Are y’all goin’ to the store?” Although I speak differently, I wouldn’t say that my dialect has damaged my communication skills. People still understand what I mean when I’m speaking to them.

The United States has many different dialects that are spoken in different areas of the country. The meaning of certain words in the Eastern side of the country have different meanings on the Southerner side of the country. The results of different dialects from different side of the country are all very unique. This reflects how people in communities within different regions have develop their own unique dialect and in many cases have travel far to other regions of the country. Dialect defines where an individual is from and reflects where they were raised as a young person.

Most people think of Manhattan when they think of New York City, also known as The City. New York City is actually spread across five different counties - one borough

As you can see slang is overpopulated and spreading across locations. Just like broadcasting through the radio. The history of slang people had used slang it at the past as

Through interactions with their caregivers, infants start understanding and producing words. During the first 2 years, there are variations both with quantity (the number of words produced or understood) and the time it takes for children to reach milestones. The 2008 study by Hurtado, Marchman, & Fernald raises three key points about how the quantity and quality of language input impact language development in young children, first related to vocabulary size, the second related to processing efficiency, and finally related efficiency in comprehension.

There are gaps in Standard English, and Southern English has creative ways of filling them. Of course, not every Southerner speaks the same variety of Southern English.