Chapter 17

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
African American Vernacular English	17	480	International Dialects of English Archive: Alabama Four (African-American female, born 1928, Chambers County, AL) International Dialects of English Archive: Alabama Nine (African-American female, born 1942, Tuskeehee, AL) International Dialects of English Archive: Alabama Thirteen (African-American male, age 20, Montgomery, AL) International Dialects of English Archive: Illinois Four (African-American female, age 23, theater student) International Dialects of English Archive: Kentucky Four (African-American female age 19, Paducah, KY) International Dialects of English Archive: Louisiana One A (African-American male, born 1972, New Orleans, LA) International Dialects of English Archive: Louisiana Two (African-American female, born 1985, New Orleans, LA) International Dialects of English Archive: Louisiana Three (African-American female, born 1985, New Orleans, LA) International Dialects of English Archive: Michigan Nine (African-American male, born 1984, Detroit, MI, student) International Dialects of English Archive: Mississippi Three (African-American male, sixties, Grenada, MS) International Dialects of English Archive: North Carolina Five (African-American male, 30s, Winston-Salem, NC) International Dialects of English Archive: South Carolina Four (African-American female, born 1986, Florence, SC) International Dialects of English Archive: Texas Seventeen (African-American male, raised in Texas)	http://www.dialectsarchive.com/alabama-4 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/alabama-9 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/alabama-13 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/illinois-4 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/kentucky-4 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/Louisiana-1a http://www.dialectsarchive.com/louisiana-2 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/louisiana-3 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/michigan-9 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/mississippi-3 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/north-carolina-5 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/south-carolina-4 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/texas-17
Chicano English	17	480	International Dialects of English Archive: Arizona One (Mexican-American male, age 25, Whittman, AZ, student) International Dialects of English Archive: Arizona Two (Mexican-American female, age 62, Nogales, AZ) International Dialects of English Archive: New Mexico One (Hispanic female, 70s) International Dialects of English Archive: Texas Three (Hispanic male, born 1974, Laredo, TX, student)	http://www.dialectsarchive.com/arizona-1 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/arizona-2 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/new-mexico-1 http://www.dialectsarchive.com/texas-3
SAE	17	481	International Dialects of English Archive: General American	http://www.dialectsarchive.com/general-american
Muslim accent	17	486	The Speech Accent Archive: Farsi 1-13 The Speech Accent Archive: Arabic 1-42 The Speech Accent Archive: Pashto 1-7 The Speech Accent Archive: Turkish 1-24	http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=find&language=farsi http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=find&language=arabic http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=find&language=pashto http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=find&language=turkish
Chinese accent	17	486	International Dialects of English Archive: Dialects of China	http://www.dialectsarchive.com/china
Swedish American	17	486	The Speech Accent Archive: Swedish 11	http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=detail&speakerid=1195

Discussion question

1. Listen to the samples of the language varieties discussed in this chapter. Do you think you could identify the races or ethnicities of these speakers? How confident are you that you can identify racial or ethnic information about strangers on the phone?

Videos

“Eddie Pinder: Linguistic Profiling”
ABC News, 07/12/2007
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Video/playerIndex?id=3372801

This video provides material for the discussion of linguistic profiling.

Discussion questions

1. What do you think about James Johnson’s case? Evaluate the arguments of the plaintiff and the defendant. Whose argument do you find more convincing and why?

2. If court cases like this one are successful, how do you think they might affect linguistic discrimination in general? Why do you feel the way you do?

Further Resources

Fought, C. (2006) Language and Ethnicity: Key Topics in Sociolinguistics. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 172–196.

Weil, H.J. (2009) Finding Housing: Discrimination and Exploitation of Latinos in the Post-Katrina Rental Market. Organization and Environment 22(4): 491–502.

Links

A Linguistic Profiling Test
http://www.uiowa.edu/~c103112/lingprof.html