Return-Path: <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id g0HKBD019094; Thu, 17 Jan 2002 15:11:13 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2002 15:11:13 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20020117120517.009f16a0@mail.aracnet.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Sylvan Rainwater <sylvan@cccchs.org> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ESL:6947] Re: standard English and pride in one's X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Status: O Content-Length: 1845 Lines: 35 At 04:43 PM 01/16/2002 -0500, you wrote: > I would venture, "how people speak" also varies considerably from >situation to situation, and a single speaker normally disposes over >several different styles of pronunciation. <SNIP> Our wonderful Sociolinguistics professor Jim Nattinger once had everyone in the classroom say the word "desks." Then he said, "Listen to all those s's and k's -- this is a classroom and I'm a teacher, of course you articulate it carefully. But listen to how you say it in other contexts. Imagine you've been moving all day, and you're taking a break with your friends over pizza, and you say something like -- we still have both those desks to move. Now how would you say it?" Many of us discovered that we said "desss" in that situation. But I have to say, I've paid attention to myself saying the word in several contexts since then, and I always put the "k" in there. However, the point was taken -- we do speak differently in different situations. One of the interesting things to me about linguistics training was just that discovery -- that we don't speak as we think we do. I was astounded to discover the glottal stop -- that sound we don't have a symbol for in English and don't think we use. But in more words than I would have suspected (button, cotton, football, etc.), there it is, instead of the "t" we write it as. The list could go on, but the point is an interesting one. Those of us who are more print-oriented, really think we're speaking as we write it, and that our writing is a fairly accurate representation of what we're saying, even when that's really not the case. ------------------------------ Sylvan Rainwater . sylvan@cccchs.org Adult Education Teacher and Family Literacy Program Manager Clackamas County Children's Commission . Oregon City, OR USA
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