Ask or aks? How linguistic prejudice perpetuates inequality (2022)

https://www.essex.ac.uk/blog/posts/2022/03/11/how-linguistic-prejudice-perpetuates-inequality

by xyzzy3000 • 2 years ago

6 11 2 years ago

essex.ac.uk

rjbwork3• 2 years ago

If you are interested in this kind of thing I highly recommend Dr. Geoff Lindsay's youtube channel. Deep dives into linguistic phenomena with a descriptive viewpoint.

https://www.youtube.com/@DrGeoffLindsey/videos

rahimnathwani• 2 years ago

I grew up in South London. When I was in primary school (equivalent to elementary school in the US):

- several of my classmates would pronounce 'ask' as 'aks'.

- I and many others used glottal stops in place of the 't' sounds in words like 'satellite'.

SSJPython• 2 years ago

Linguicism is an idea invented by human-rights activist and linguist Tove Skutnabb-Kangas to describe discrimination based on language or dialect. The prejudice around “aks” is an example of linguicism.
Decades of research shows that the idea that any variation from standard English is incorrect (or, worse, unprofessional or uneducated) is a smokescreen for prejudice. Linguicism can have serious consequences by worsening existing socio-economic and racial inequalities.

No, this is utter rubbish. While languages do change over time, most modern languages have their own standard form. You can't just say that it's prejudicial just because someone gets called out or judged for mispronouncing a word. In fact, they should be. Proficiency in the standard form of a nation-state's language is crucial to being an informed citizen.

Not everybody's whim should be accommodated. At some point, people need to take personal responsibility. Leave this ideological post-modern woke BS out of linguistics.

rjbwork3• 2 years ago

Linguistics as practiced for a long time is descriptive. It is the only practice that makes any sense given the extreme diversity of linguistic forms present in the world.

How about you leave your pre-modern prescriptive prejudice out of linguistics.

If you want to discriminate against people for how they speak, that's your prerogative, but it has nothing to do with linguistics as practiced.

AnimalMuppet2• 2 years ago

How about this: Yes, linguistics is descriptive. In the world we live in, some people say "aks". And that is regarded as a marker of lower class/uneducated people, and is not generally used by educated/upper class/professional people.

It seems to me that linguistics should note that, yes, it is used, and it has a very definite meaning, and it has a connotation about the social class and education of the speaker, and is therefore considered socially improper even if it is linguistically proper.

o11c• 2 years ago

As much as I'm a prescriptivist, the particular case of "aks" has just as much historical correctness as "ask" in English. The only place that "ask" wins is when comparing similar words in Continental languages.

AnimalMuppet2• 2 years ago

Really? Source?

Ask or aks? How linguistic prejudice perpetuates inequality (2022)

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