How Language Demonstrates Diversity Within The United States

Pondering on the reasons why language is still an issue at the forefront of language education in the United States, John Baugh contributes prominent and gargantuan amounts of information of the Ebonics debate. Writing from both a personal standpoint as an African American and a professional one as a sociolinguist, John Baugh states that immigrant groups from every part of the world have perpetually brought in their languages to the United States, diversifying the mixing pot, engendering diverse cultures, languages, and identities to the woven fabric of America. In the viewpoint of African Americans, John Baugh explains that Ebonics is persistently and tremendously misunderstood, hugely due to how the topic gained global attention during a racially charged education

Talking Black In America addresses how advanced, unique, and culturally important African American English is (Hutcheson and Cullinan, 2017).

“Twenty-one percent of U.S. residents now speak a language other than English at home. Although many of these people are bilingual, more than twenty-five million residents say they speak English at levels they would rate as less than ‘very well’’ (washingtontimes.com). In the United States, there is no official language, yet most Americans believe everyone must speak English and only English to be an American. Americans who become citizens must learn Standard English resulting in a forked tongue speaking both their native language and English or complete loss of their native tongue and culture. When there is a loss of someone’s culture it results to a loss of identity, beliefs, values, customs, and behaviors. When policing Americans, there are invisible laws set which establish boundaries between Standard and Nonstandard English. There are two forms of English: Standard and Nonstandard, but Nonstandard English is not excepted in all situations. For example, if someone was in a job interview using Nonstandard English, he might be addressed as uneducated or underqualified. Nonstandard English should be recognized but not used in a professional, formal, or intimate conversations, furthermore allowing immigrants, students, and all Americans to express themselves in a way that is comfortable to them and the person they are speaking to.

In this essay, June Jordan primarily focuses on explaining what Black English and how it’s become oppressed by Caucasian Americans throughout the years. Jordan believes African Americans have been raised to modify Black English to Standard English in order to be accepted into the societal and scholarly norms of America. Jordan states early on her essay, “As we learn our way around this environment, either we hide our original word habits,or we completely

People who are different are consequently viewed differently. It is human nature to judge others by the stereotypes that have been ingrained into our minds for however long. Stereotypes, however, may not encompass the whole story. Sometimes, you are only getting the discriminatory side of the story--a single story. Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” focuses on the discrimination towards broken English compared to Standard English and the stereotypes that evolved from such discrimination. Similarly, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story” presents the idea that the “single story” is the reason for biased stereotypes that, more often than not, are untrue. Tan’s life in America was seemingly difficult due to the fact that her life and education were dependent on the language barrier between English and her “mother tongue”--the latter being seen as inferior and embarrassing. She initially felt that her mother’s fragmented English was something to be ashamed of since that was the “single story” that her peers have been spoonfed their whole lives. Adichie, however, denies these views by explaining that such stereotypes are incomplete and do not relay the person at hand’s true identity. In both “Mother Tongue” and “The Danger of a Single Story,” the speakers express how a person’s native language influences their identity through rhetorical devices such as ethos, diction, and metaphors.

With a background affected tremendously by the dark history of African Americans, language has become a significant problem to what the term Black English really means to different people. In If Black Language Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is, James Baldwin attempts to analyze what a language really means and how Black English evolved to fulfill an important role for Americans. Black English sounds proper to blacks, but to whites it may not be a proper use of language. Throughout this essay, Baldwin uses a specific tone and relates to his audience by opening his mind to both emotion and logic while still upholding his credibility. Baldwin tries to persuade the audience to respect the language of Black English using his personal experience. The history of different languages mentioned in the essay is used to help convince the audience of thinking about the term language from a new perspective. Whites and Blacks both may speak the same language, but that does not mean that they understand each other because the language can be spoken in different matters. As Baldwin states, “The white man could not possibly understand, and that, indeed, he cannot understand, until today”. A white man or black man had to be careful about the words they used in front of each other because some words would be considered offensive for one another. Baldwin uses African American language and culture to reveal the impact that the English language Americans use has created.

Speech is often associate with race because some individuals believe that if the person does not sound “educated” enough the person comes from a lower class and was brought up in the so called “ghettos” and this association is often made towards someone that forms part of a minority group. The author illustrates that race is tight up with speech

MacNeil often goes to expert opinion to justify his points. To defend a point about why African American language is not ruining the English language, MacNeil says, “to linguists, the fault lies not in a particular dialect, but in what attitudes others bring towards it” (310). This means that dialects are not the problem, but those who choose to be disgusted with them are. MacNeil also notes that “in the linguistic community, black English is recognized as having its own internal consistencies and grammatical forms” (310). This proves that African American Language is not ruining the English language as it is an effective form of communicating. I chose these quotes to show the ineffectiveness of this rhetorical device to certain members of the audience as they don’t know who the linguists are and

Previously to this class, I was not aware of the different dialects that were common in California. If I were to hear someone speaking Chicano English or African American English I would unrightfully assume that they were speaking English incorrectly. However, throughout this course I learned each of these dialects contains their own unique rules, which make them grammatically and linguistically correct. Even though these dialects are linguistically equal, that does not make them socially equal. Besides accented English, non- English speakers are generally judged based on their accent. This however, is linguistic profiling, which is illegal in the United States. It is hard

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.

Every day, the English language continues to expand worldwide as it has become a universal language, meaning that different cultures around the world are speaking English. English is used differently by each culture and has developed a selection of dialects. The United States, specifically, serves as a prime example of the different ways English is spoken due to its diversity. America’s diversity is because it is a country with a high population of immigrants from all over the world. Specifically, the United States is home to many immigrants coming from Latin American countries. When Latino/a immigrants come to this country they get busy learning how to speak English so that they can study, become successful, and communicate easily with

The United States is commonly know as a melting pot of nations, in which people from around the world have emigrated to form a homogeneous yet varied culture. Although we come from different ethnic groups, we are usually bound together through our common English language. This becomes an issue, however, when immigrants are not familiar with English and American culture, and instead attempt to keep their own heritage alive. They are often torn between identities through language, the one they speak at home which they are familiar with, and the one they must adhere to in public. This often leads to struggle and conflict on both sides, dealing with different cultures and how people react when assimilation occurs. Because of this, living in the United States often requires us to completely accept only one identity, even though hints of the other may spill over at times.

Historically, humans have always been separated into groups based on appearance, whether that is concerning body shape, the clothes we wear, or the color of our skin. Stereotyping is a natural instinct that humans have because they feel the need to classify people in order to not feel threatened by them. Humans feel an obligation to know and understand people but do not necessarily want to be associated with them, thus they place people into specific groups, labeling them. One of the primary ways that we stereotype people is by their race. Being a minority that has always been prejudiced against in America, African Americans are often judged because of the way that they speak. Black students have struggled in academic settings that use Standard English, such as in the common American classroom. African American Vernacular English (AAVE) harms Black students through discrimination on standardized tests and in classroom environments.

The English language is constantly changing and adapting. There are so many different forms, dialects, and accents etc. The way that they have evolved and become what they are currently is perhaps the most interesting thing, even moreso that wondering what they might potentially become as they continue to adapt to fit the time. I took a class this semester called “Diversity” and in this class we discussed the idea of accents as way to stereotype people. We hear the way that one person speaks and use that to determine things about them that we absolutely shouldn’t. For example assuming that someone with an accent you don’t recognize or is hard for you to understand is less educated or has less money. In that class we looked into more regional accents

African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is the variety previously known as Black English Vernacular or Vernacular Black English by sociolinguists, and commonly called Ebonics outside the academic community. However, some characteristics of AAVE are seemingly unique in its structure. It also includes a number of standard and nonstandard English varieties are spoken by the US and the Caribbean people. AAVE has been the core of many public debates and also the analysis of this variety has encouraged and sustained debates amongst sociolinguists.  Some speakers may use some special aspects of pronunciation and vocabulary. Nevertheless, the grammatical features are not connected with the variety. Several sociolinguists would reserve the term AAVE for varieties which are marked by the existence of specific distinctive grammatical features and some of them are discussed below. The history of AAVE and what language varieties it is related to are also a matter of argument. Some scholars confirm that AAVE developed out a connection between speakers of West African languages and speakers of vernacular English varieties. According to such an opinion, West Africans learnt English on plantations in the southern Coastal States from very few native speakers. Some say that this led to the development of a rudimentary pidgin, a very simple language which has been extended through a process of colorization later.