Does egalitarian mean everyone speaking with the same voice, then? [...] But woss wrong wiv Stan's accent?
All right, I'll bite. The linguist in me would like to point out that no dialect (or accent) is inherently better than any other dialect. The same linguist in me would also like to point out that we think more highly of certain dialects than others, and we tend to ascribe more positive characteristics to speakers of highly-valued dialects and more negative characteristics to speakers of less-valued dialects. In addition, we all speak a dialect, even those who speak a standard dialect. You with me so far? Good.
Now, it's not likely that everyone in HP would speak Standard English, yet JKR doesn't normally denote their non-standard dialects or accents in writing. Therefore, when she does do so, it's significant. Does she intend to evoke negative stereotypes by having Stan speak a lower-class accent? I can't answer for sure, but it does seem likely.
But whether you agree with me that, in this case, a lower-class dialect is used to evoke negative stereotypes, it'd be foolish to pretend that the choice to use such a dialect is a neutral one.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-01-16 09:32 pm (UTC)All right, I'll bite. The linguist in me would like to point out that no dialect (or accent) is inherently better than any other dialect. The same linguist in me would also like to point out that we think more highly of certain dialects than others, and we tend to ascribe more positive characteristics to speakers of highly-valued dialects and more negative characteristics to speakers of less-valued dialects. In addition, we all speak a dialect, even those who speak a standard dialect. You with me so far? Good.
Now, it's not likely that everyone in HP would speak Standard English, yet JKR doesn't normally denote their non-standard dialects or accents in writing. Therefore, when she does do so, it's significant. Does she intend to evoke negative stereotypes by having Stan speak a lower-class accent? I can't answer for sure, but it does seem likely.
But whether you agree with me that, in this case, a lower-class dialect is used to evoke negative stereotypes, it'd be foolish to pretend that the choice to use such a dialect is a neutral one.