Re: CHAT: Multi-Lingos

On 21 Aug, John Cowan wrote:

>One school system in Missouri even decided that everyone who didn't speak
>English like (white) Missourians had a speech defect, and needed remedial
>therapy.

Oskar Gudlaugsson wrote:

>> I mean, isn't that an
>> outright violation of American law (e.g. the oft-quoted "freedom of
speech"
>> article)?
Not only that, it's not too ethical either. I still remember being
taught that if I were to be requested to "treat" the "bad
White English"  of Black Americans, I should refuse, on the grounds
that "Black English" was not simply a collection of speech deficits,
but rather a linguistic system in its own right.
(OTOH, if a speaker of Black English came, and for his own personal
reasons, wished to learn "standard English"  (whatever dialect  _that_ might
be ;-) ), it _was_  considered proper to teach him, insofar as joining a
class of "English for Speakers of Foreign  Languages" was not acceptable
for speakers of Black English and we were the only other alternative. )
    Here in Israel, I run into the exact opposite problem: I have parents
bring me their children for therapy precisely _because_ they speak like
everybody else around them! For example: most Israelis do not differentiate,
in spoken Hebrew, between  the letters "het" (pharyngeal
fricative) and "chaf" (velar fricative). They are both usually pronounced
with a velar fricative. But some ethnic groups here  _do_  maintain the
difference in their speech, and what's more, they're extremely proud of it.
 So when the kid starts dropping the difference, it's considered by them to
be a
serious speech problem and they bring him to me, and I get stuck with the
dilemma:
do I satisfy the family and make the kid different from all his peers
(and will he even cooperate in the effort?) or do I refuse,
and leave the kid different from his family, with the possibility of his
becoming
a potential family "black sheep" or even worse?
A tough choice no matter which way it goes. And this is just one set of
emotionally important dialect differences. There are others.
Can't say that my work is dull!

Dan Sulani

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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a.

A word is an awesome thing.