[ExI] Linguistic Markers of Class

[gts]

On Sun, 27 May 2007 12:34:57 -0400, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:

> Besides the obvious dropping of the 'g's in "ing" words, what other
> linguistic markers of class have people noticed?

Though born and raised in the suburbs of the SF Bay Area, I left Ca long  
ago and never looked back. Since then I have lived all over this great  
land, among the rich and the poor from North to South to East and West.  
I've noticed many different dialects and ways of speaking, and I have to  
say it's a bit disturbing to me to think of them as linguistic markers of  
"class". Am I being too PC, Lee? Maybe.

However I do find dialects 'outside the mainstream' to be interesting and  
sometimes amusing. One of my favorites is the dialect I noticed in rural  
parts of Penn, while living near the Amish and among the 'Pennsylvania  
Dutch'. In those parts of the country it's not unusual to hear people  
utter such absurdities as, "Throw the horse over the fence some hay." (!?)

But again I'm reluctant to say these rural people are "low-class". They've  
just resisted assimilation. More power to them, I say.

Back in the 90's I published a glowing website in celebration of the Amish  
people and their dialect, beliefs and customs. Funny, though, I never  
received any thank you emails.

-gts