Do you speak a dialect?

Is the language you speak a dialect?  I'll bet the majority of us would say, "No, I speak real language." After all, the version of the language we speak serves our communication needs quite well, day in and day out.

From a linguistic viewpoint, the answer to the above question is, "Yes, I speak a dialect, because everyone speaks a dialect." Some linguists even claim that the term 'dialect' should be substituted for 'language'.

But the term 'dialect' has acquired a  bad reputation through the years.  It carries a whiff of something unpleasant, unacceptable, substandard, uneducated, lower class.  You get the picture. So it is easy to see why we may be reluctant to admit that we speak a dialect.

The definition of a dialect has nothing to do with language itself, and everything to do with society. In most societies, one dialect (version) of a language becomes what is known as the 'standard language.'  Ah, that term feels much better, doesn't it?  Generally, a dialect becomes the standard language/dialect because it is spoken by those individuals with power, influence and money.

Linguists often quote a translation of an observation in Yiddish that " A language is a dialect with an army and a navy."  In other words, if a certain dialect has power behind it, it will be recognized as a language.  Conversely, a dialect without power will remain a dialect.  All dialects have an equal ability to convey what their speakers want to say.

Standard language/dialect is associated with formal oral communication and also with writing.

It is usually found in the media, textbooks, classrooms of all levels, and second language instruction. Standard language is often associated with the variety of language spoken in the capital cities of countries, since they are generally centers of government, education, and banking.  So we have some language snobbery occurring - Parisians versus Canadians, residents of Madrid versus those of Mexico City, Londoners versus Scots, Washingtonians versus Texans.

Some Scottish dialects

A popular example comes to mind to demonstrate dialectal differences. How do you express plural 'you'?  In Standard English, there is not a separate word for plural 'you'.  Sometimes just saying 'you' doesn't express the plural meaning that I need.   Being a Texan, I find 'y'all'  useful. Other English speakers in the United States have invented other creative words for plural 'you', like 'youse', 'you-uns', and the current choice of many young wait staffers, 'you guys'.  Here is a short article giving more 'you' plural options.  From Y'all To Youse, 8 English Ways to Make "You" Plural

Now comes decision time.  Should a person speak their own regional dialect or the standard dialect.?The answer will be a personal one, depending on factors such as audience,  communication style, and  intended communication.  If I speak to my family with the same language that I would use teaching a university course, my family would think that I am putting on airs.  And if I were to teach a class using my Texas drawl, I might have a few critical students.

As for me, 'y'all' will continue to serve me in my everyday conversations.  But when I am receiving my award for the Nobel Prize for Literature, I may decide 'you' is a more efficacious choice to thank the panel members.  I doubt if that will be one of my worries for a while!

    

Do you speak Castilian Spanish?

"My parents taught me Castilian Spanish,"  I heard someone in El Paso, Texas say recently.  How strange, I thought.   To me,  the term Castilian Spanish conjures up images of the dialect of Spanish spoken in northern and central Spain and its capital, Madrid.  Why in the world would you want to learn that dialect in the American Southwest, where we have our own dialect of Spanish? Upon further consideration, I realized what the speaker probably meant by Castilian Spanish. She was using 'Castilian' as shorthand for 'correct'.  Ah, the plot thickens!

Castilian Spanish has a variety of meanings and connotations.  Viewed as one of many dialects of Spanish, it  has a distinctive pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. One of the most easily recognized characteristics is the pronunciation of the letter 'z' before all vowels and the letter 'c' before 'e' or 'i' (the sound of the 'th' of 'think' in English). Try saying the word plaza Castilian style.

Spanish verb conjugation of ver estar

A grammatical difference from other dialects is the more frequent use of the plural pronoun 'vosotros' for 'you'  (you all in Texan!)  Other Spanish dialects use ustedes for more than one person you are speaking to. This is significant because  vosotros and ustedes require different verb endings. I memorized the vosotros verb endings, like estáis, habláis, coméis, vivís (you-plural are, speak, eat, live) when I was in high school, but they are no longer in my speaking vocabulary. Maybe I had better bone up on verb conjugations before I travel to Spain later on this year.! 

Seal of Real Academia Española

There is another, expanded meaning of Castilian Spanish which refers to the concept of Standard Spanish. Many languages have one dialect that for political and economic reasons is raised to the status of Standard Dialect and used by the media and educational institutions.  The Royal Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española) has declared that Castilian Spanish is the standard dialect. Now Castilian Spanish has taken on a new meaning of 'the correct way to speak Spanish'.

With an expanded meaning of Castilian Spanish, we can play amateur psychologist and delve into the possible meaning behind the aforementioned speaker's declaration that her parents had taught her Castilian Spanish. I don't believe that they insisted that she speak Spanish as it is spoken in a large part of Spain. They probably did insist that she use whatever they viewed as correct pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary.  And their variety of Spanish may have been somewhat different from Southwestern Spanish.  A bit of language snobbishness, I would guess.  

I'm anticipating learning a lot about attitudes toward using different varieties of Spain when we travel there.  I remember from our last trip that a restaurant owner paid me a backhanded compliment by saying that my Spanish was quite good, but that I sounded like a 'Chicana'.  Another bit of language snobbery, it seems. I think he meant that I was using New World instead of Old World Spanish, which would be perfectly natural, since I am American and learned my Spanish on the US-Mexico border.

Spanish-speaking regions of the world

 At least he didn't complain about a feature of my Spanish that embarrasses me to no end -  my lack of a good, strong trilled 'r'!