Chapter 12
Please note that the labels on each recording (for example, "Chicago English" or "Black English") were provided by the person who made the recording available for you to listen to. Other linguists or individuals may not agree on the description as it stands. The best example of this: you'll note that some recordings are marked "general" American, which is problematic for the same reasons the term "standard" English is problematic.
Audio Examples
Audio
|
Accent |
Chapter |
Page # |
Online Example Title |
URL |
|
Hawai'i Creole |
12 |
354 |
Language Varieties: Kent Sakoda speaks Hawai'i Creole English |
http://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/sounds/hcesound.html |
|
SAE |
12 |
357 |
International Dialects of English Archive: General American |
|
|
AAVE |
12 |
357 |
International Dialects of English Archive: Alabama Four (African-American female, born 1928, Chambers County, AL) |
http://www.dialectsarchive.com/alabama-4 |
|
Filipino accent |
12 |
358 |
International Dialects of English Archive: Dialects of The Philippines |
|
|
Cuban accent |
12 |
361 |
International Dialects of English Archive: Dialects and Accents of Cuba |
|
|
South Carolina coast |
12 |
361 |
The Speech Accent Archive: English 86 |
http://accent.gmu.edu/searchsaa.php?function=detail&speakerid=150 |
Discussion questions
1. Listen to the samples of HCE* and AAVE*. Chapter 12 describes research done by Marlow and Giles (2008) that discusses how many people believe that *SAE should be used in business and formal situations rather than HCE. It was noted that people’s opinions about when to use HCE was similar to research on attitudes about when AAVE should be used. Why do you think these similarities exist in the language attitudes of speakers of AAVE and HCE?
2. Listen to the samples of English spoken with a Filipino accent* and revisit the information in the case of Manuel Fragante, the Filipino man who was not hired by the DMV in Hawai’i because of his accent. Evaluate the DMV’s motivation for not hiring Fragante – based on the information about the case provided in Chapters 9 and 12, what do you think the real reason was behind the DMV’s decision?
3. Listen to the samples of the language varieties mentioned in Chapter 12 and examine the following quote from page 242:
We want the children of the United States to have a thorough command of English, but it is more than that. We are not satisfied with English as it lives and breathes, English with a Cuban accent, the English spoken off the coast of South Carolina, or Hawaiʻi Creole English. We want the right English, the one correct English.
Why do you think that so many people want everyone to speak the “right” English? Why would English with a Cuban accent, the English spoken off the coast of South Carolina, or Hawai’i Creole English not be considered the one “right” English?
Videos
“Ha Kim Wi Tawk Pidgin Yet?” Parts 1–4
A student project video from the Wai’anea High School on Oahu.
http://www1.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=152909
http://www1.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=154041
http://www1.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=154043
http://www1.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=152962
Discussion question
1. What language ideologies about Hawai’ian Creole English and *SAE are expressed in these videos?
Further Resources
Marlow, M. and Giles, H. (2008) Who You Tink You, Talkin Propah? Hawai’ian Pidgin Demarginalised. Journal of Multicultural Discourses 3(1): 53–68.
Marlow, M. and Giles, H. (2010) “We won’t get ahead speaking like that!” Expressing and managing language criticism in Hawai’i. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 31(3): 237–251.
Meyerhoff, M. (2006) Topics from the Tropics (Hawai’i). In W. Wolfram and B. Ward (Eds.) American Voices: How Dialects Differ from Coast to Coast. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Talmy, S. (2010) Becoming “Local” in ESL: Racism as Resource in a Hawai'i Public High School. Journal of Language, Identity and Education 9(1): 36–57.
Images
Signs about pidgin and *SAE education. These signs were written in regards to Cameroonian Pidgin English rather than HCE; however, while the language varieties are different, the standard language ideology is the same.
http://www.27months.com/images/115/img_1819.jpg
http://www.27months.com/images/115/img_1816.jpg
http://www.27months.com/images/115/img_1818.jpg
Links
Da Hawai’i Pidgin Bible
http://www.pidginbible.org/
Language Varieties: Hawai’i Creole
http://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/hce.html