Re: Grammar

Holger Dansk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>I am a linguist; there is no morality in language.  There are many
>>dialects and each is appropriate to its own context, so that there is
>>no "correct" or "incorrect" language, except with regards to a
>>specific context.
>
>We are not talking about local dialects here.  We are talking about the
>English language in the entire world

You apparently are unaware of the range of variation of English in the
entire world.

http://www.une.edu.au/langnet/singlish.htm  (see the section on
sounds) covers Singaporean English.

Actually, here is a better one:
http://eleaston.com/world-eng.html#ng
gives sites with discussion of many varieties of English and sound
samples of each.

>and what is right or wrong in the use of it.

There is no right or wrong.

>You seem to be confused.  Just because there is a dialect in
>east Tennessee where people say "tar" for a tire, "far" for fire, "war"
>for wire, "diddle" for baby chicken instead of biddy, etc., does not
>mean that this is correct English.

Of course it is, for them.

>Correct English conforms to correct pronunciation.

Who defines correct pronunciation?  You?  Don't make me laugh.

There is NO official standard that defines what correct English is.

>Otherwise, why have dictionaries giving the correct pronunciation?

They don't.   They give the most frequent pronunciations (most good
dictionaries will list multiple pronunciations when dialectal
differences are significant on the matter).

>>>What's the matter with you?
>>
>>I'm more educated than you are about the nature of language in
>>general, and about the English language in particular.
>
>You, evidently, have become too educated about language and have become
>confused about the basic and fundamental rules of speaking and
>pronouncing English correctly as it should be today in the United States

Who made those rules?  Who elected them?  Why "should" anyone listen
to them?

>Even worse, you strive to find out
>some excuse for many negroes having pronouncing it wrong for a few
>hundred years while people from many other countries learn very quickly
>how to pronounce it and do it correctly.

You apparently are also quite ignorant about ESL learning.

>The fact is that many negroes are just plain stupid

Not as stupid as you seem to be.

>Unfortunately, it will effect their whole lives a great deal.

Not likely.  There are numerous college professors with accents so
thick that students can't understand them.  Pronunciation doesn't seem
to have affected them.

lojbab
-- 
lojbab                                             [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bob LeChevalier, Founder, The Logical Language Group
(Opinions are my own; I do not speak for the organization.)
Artificial language Loglan/Lojban:                 http://www.lojban.org