Genderlect
Age-specific code
IdiolectLinguism and other isms
Linguists believe that any language is as good as any other, all languages being a
manifestation of the human faculty of language. Many non-linguists do not share
this belief, holding that Sanskrit is the eternal language, perfect and unchanging;
that Italian is the language of romance; that English is cool; that certain accents
are inferior to others; that some ways of speaking are beautiful and others ugly.
Perceptual dialectology is the scientific study of attitudes of this sort, which
invariably lead to discrimination of one kind or another. It is easier to say, ‘What
a dreadful dialect!’ than ‘I hate these guys’.
Praise and scorn of language varieties testify to the important role language
plays for group identification. The defacing of the Irish part of bilingual English
and Irish road signs in Ulster is a hate crime directed against a bilingual
language policy and a conciliatory attitude towards neighbouring Ireland.
Dual-language road signs are a favourite target of linguistic chauvinists. They
are in plain view, and no one has any doubt that the vandalized signpost is just a
stand-in for the speakers of the wiped-out language.
And so it is with other dimensions of linguistic identity. Mimicking a dialect,
ethnolect, sociolect or genderlect is an effective strategy to mock someone. A
key element of impersonating politicians or other prominent people is imitating
their way of speaking, a skill that stand-up comedians exaggerate to humorous
effect. Acting generally involves employing speech varieties suitable to the
embodied character.
Speech caricature can be denigrating and upsetting precisely because it touches
the victim’s personality. For the same reason, telling someone that they are
talking like ‘a fag’, ‘an old whore’, or ‘a white boy’ is considered offensive
rather than a matter-of-fact description, regardless of how true it may be. Taking
issue with language in one of its forms that are associated with groups or
individuals may be a masked attack on that group or individual grounded upon