Blog Post 12 April 17

A quote that grabbed my eye from the Lippie-Green readings is, “Nevertheless, it is useful to consider standard language and non-accent both as abstractions and as myths.” I had to read this and the paragraph to follow it. I understood standard language as one language that people speak so they can all understand each other. I am now learning that “standard language need not be understood as any specific language, but as "an idea in the mind rather than a reality - a set of abstract norms to which· actual usage may conform to a greater or lesser extent"! (1991: 22-23).2 We can extrapolate from this position to call non-accent not any particular variety of US English, but a collectively held ideal, which brings with it a series of social and regional associations.” But if standard language is a myth then why is the term still used? Why is standard language a myth? Myths motivate people to think a certain way. When I think of myths I think of ghosts, aliens and Bigfoot. I never thought that concept in the English language could be a myth.

The first thing I think about when I hear the term “accent” is a southern drawl. Being raised in Illinois, I am used to a fast paced atmosphere with fast talking people. Accent just distinguishes different parts of the country but when someone speaks so slowly I just want to say “Out with it already!” because I either want to be done with the conversation or move onto the next topic. Mostly geography is used when we think about accents (Boston accent, New York accent, Texan accent). I liked how they point out that gender, age, religion, income, race and ethnicity are also characteristics that affect someone’s speech. Going off of gender, I even think that your sexuality has to deal with the way you speak, pronounce words and what vocabulary you use. For example, a homosexual male/female may not say the same things or use the same words or slang as a heterosexual male/female. An L1 accent is just structure variation within the language, but an L2 accent depends upon that person’s L1 speak. For example, the L1 speaker speaking an L2 language uses what they have learned from their native language to speak the target language. “Thus far it has been set forth that all spoken human language is necessarily and functionally variable; one of the functions of variation is to convey social, stylistic, and geographic meaning; the majority of the work of variation is carried out below the level of consciousness.” I can say that using your accent from L1 is true when you are speaking an L2 because I know that I do it when I speak Spanish. I know that from taking Spanish classes my native speaking classmates seem to skip over words, but they are just talking so fast because they are used to doing that. I, however, have trouble with pronunciation because I still don’t know all of the words there are in Spanish and I don’t think I ever will. Is it a possibility that people can really gain an authentic accent or even lose one completely?