Re: Learning a language

From: Eugene Holman (holman_at_elo.helsinki.fi)
Date: 06/14/04 

Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 15:00:46 +0300

In article <40CD910C.17A3@worldnet.att.net>, "Peter T. Daniels"
<grammatim@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

> Eugene Holman wrote:
> >
<deletions>
> >
> > Elaborating their own norms for English would also have given the slaves
> > the elements of a new social identity. Addtionally, in condtions of
> > illiteracy, with no mass communications, and most of their contact with
> > native-speaker English being the local dialects, it seems obvious that the
> > language of the slaves would embark on its own path of evolution.
>
> "Elaborating their own norms"??
>
> Have you been skimming Joshua Fishman with zero attention to the social
> context of slavery?

No. Rather I have been thinking about the rise and persistence of
so-called non-standard, even stigmatized norms, roughly along the lines of
Labov's study of Martha's Vineyard. They are marks of in-group solidarity.
For a slave, who had precious little else to call his/her own, a distinct
way of speaking English, perhaps with a bit of irony and healthy
disrespect for the rules defining the speech of the overseeing class,
would have been a valuable possession.

Regards,
Eugene Holman

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