Conner Malloy Ms.

Linda Hofmann English 1101 2 December 2013 Inquiry into Language, Literacy and Identity Ever since the first time I had my speech corrected by my father I have been lectured on how my speech defines me as an individual. When I was a child, like many children being corrected by their parents, I would always tend to take what my parents had to say for granted. This particular lecture However, unlike other, more opinionated, lectures I have received from my parents, the lecture my father would give on the topic of my speech always led me to question, what truly is proper speech. My parents, both being from different states and different social backgrounds, interestingly enough speak a form of American English so similar that there are only minute differences in the way they speak. My mother was born in the northern United States to a middle class family where everybody received a catholic education and were taught a proper way of speaking. My father, however, was born to a poorer family in the mid-west. Much in contrast with my Mothers childhood, my father had to make the decision to separate himself from his familys history of illiteracy. The paternal side of my fathers family was mostly illiterate, for example, my grandfathers education never extended further than elementary school and he only just began to learn how to read and write after being taught by my grandmother. Without a family history to reinforce my fathers way of speaking, my father chose to learn what he thought was proper and what differed from his family history. I believe, but cannot say

necessarily for certain, that my father felt disadvantaged because of his family history and was absolutely compelled to separate himself from it. My father was the first from his family to attend an institute of higher learning, making him the first person in his family to receive a university degree. At college, my father took interest in business and was dedicated to becoming a true business professional, defying his family background and better providing himself with opportunity in the future. My fathers attitude towards his upbringing and education has had a direct impact on how I direct my own speech. Like my father I would prefer to separate myself from what was considered ignorant and speak what I believed to be proper. Unlike my mother and father I was born in the south, North Carolina to be exact, where southern accents are most definitely not uncommon. Where I grew up I would constantly be surrounded by those who spoke with a southern accent, however my father made sure that this exposure didnt have an impact on speech. I remember when I was very little, when I would come home from school and pronounce a word in a southern way or speak sentences with a grammatically-unsound southern context, my father would be furious. Not being from the south, Im sure my father stereotyped those with southern accents to be of lesser socio-economic status. Although I didnt initially understand my fathers reason, so I always became frustrated with him when he would correct me. I didnt understand how it could make me any different than anybody else if I learned to speak any different than those around me. Even so, my father made it clear that I wasnt to develop bad habits and I had no choice but to begrudgingly take my fathers advice and speak in a proper way. I suppose being reprimanded continuously is going to condition you a certain way, because at 5-10 years later my attitude towards my speech was in direct correlation with my

fathers opinion. I used to ignorantly judge those who spoke with southern accents and northern accents, those who spoke English as a second language, and African Americans and their Ebonics. Because of my conditioning I would look down upon these people because they did not speak what I believed to be proper. When I got to high school I learned to be understanding of the many different forms of English. It began to not bother me when people spoke a different form of English amongst each other, I would only be bothered when native English speakers would speak their form of English towards me. For example I am still put back when a receptionist, would speak to me in an Ebonics-inspired form of English, knowing that I was a white American who was not used to English spoken in that context. I have been fortunate enough to live in a very well-rounded community. In the western part of Union County, where I live, many people who live in my community came from other states and only few people are considered true North Carolinians. As a product of my environment I became accustomed to meeting people from New York, New Jersey, Boston, and other northern states. It was also not strange to meet Hispanics and African Americans of all social classes be it rich, poor, or middle class. This is because the western part of Union County is home to many people like my parents who choose to live in Union County and commute to work in Charlotte. What is different about the town I live in, Waxhaw, is its proximity to South Carolina, a state I believe should be considered more southern than North Carolina. My house is only a 10-15 minute drive to South Carolina, but the lifestyle is different there. Because people in South Carolina dont live to work in the city of Charlotte like people I am accustomed to, they are more native and have families that have lived in the state for many many years. This leads people, only 10-15 minutes away from my house, to have a much more traditional and heavy southern accent, and I am still not quite used to it yet.

Up until my enrollment at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, I have been surrounded by people who lived under the same circumstances as myself and were also as wellrounded as I was in regards to the differences in speech exhibited amongst those in America. I was appalled, for example, to sit in my English class at UNCC and see that more than fifty percent of the class did not even know that a majority of African Americans speak a form of English that is separate from our own. It was even more interesting to see the surprise on the face of a fellow student, who is African-American, when I explained Ebonics as well as I could amongst our group of students who, in majority, did not understand the term Ebonics. Ive brought up the topic amongst many people on campus after my classroom discussion on the topic. In my experience the only people Ive been able to find that understand Ebonics is a separate form of English has been African-Americans themselves or white people who went to schools with a majority of African American students. This has baffled me, I went to grade school for 13 years in Union County, North Carolina and I think there have been less than 10 African Americans total in all of the classes Ive ever attended. How is it that I can understand the existence of the language? I tend to think certain schools are afraid to discuss speech out of fear of generalization and racism without even realizing that the lack of discussion regarding this topic is only further subjecting speakers of a minority form of English to even more generalization. Ebonics, that isnt racist is it? I mean how could describing a unique language with a unique name instantly become racist? Chicano-English isnt racist, is it? Most people dont think through the categorization of the many different forms of English. For example, Ebonics simply derived from the many different African cultures that clashed with the newly formed and ever forming American culture during colonial times. Slavery and later on in history,

oppression, completely created what is known as Ebonics. Africans were forced to live amongst each other, not necessarily knowing the same language, but all having to learn English in order to communicate with their owners. These environments raised what was known as slave-talk and this slave-talk continued to change with the generations and still exists today, although in a much more modern form. I brought up these points in English class here at UNCC and was surprised to see disgust on the face of an African-American student I was discussing this with. It almost seemed as if he thought I was racist for saying that a language a majority of people of his race speak was formed from slavery. I think this is the problem that most African Americans have when categorizing their speech. Because of the unfortunate background and impending racism that defined Ebonics, African-Americans I believe are not proud of their iteration of English when being forced to compare it to the more proper white English. Earlier I said that I would raise questions amongst my peers on campus about speech, certain forms of speech and etcetera, and that has made me realize a lot about my own speech. For example a hall mate of mine asked me to say hello to his girlfriend on FaceTime, of course being the nice guy I am I went ahead and said hello. What was strange is she asked me the generic question, How are you? simple enough I suppose so I answered, I am quite alright, how are you? and she laughed and jokingly said quite alright in a demeaning manor. This is not the first time since I have been at college that my speech has been ridiculed by my peers. My own roommate asks me to speak in English because I use too many words to say something simple. To speak in English as if I wasnt already? That makes me question how other people interpret what I have to say. If someone asks a rhetorical question that I know the answer to Ill answer it for them and they will look at me like Im insane, as if I wasnt supposed to know the answer, as if I was supposed to just leave it as rhetorical and thoughtless. Amongst

my age group many people, including my girlfriend, have told me that I am boring because when I speak or tell a story it sounds like I read it out of a book. I dont even read books that often? This confuses me. My generation, in my experience, grew up hating literature. We have TV, movies and the Internet, so why do we have to read? That is the mindset of most as I understand it at least. I figure because of this mindset people in my age group tend to tone out someone who speaks in a more intricate and informative matter rather than just simply saying something as bluntly as they can. It is almost uncommon to hear someone explain something with more than one adjective anymore. Speech is a difficult topic of discussion, because we all learn our speech at such a young age we dont necessarily get to choose how we speak. This naturally adds onto our debate on what we should define proper speech as. Either collectively or individually we are all going to have our own opinions, based on our own backgrounds and experiences. I think we must all learn to be more impartial towards forms of language and just accept it as an identifier of where someone is from geographically and historically. I have been able to apply this to my attitude towards speech and its helpful not only to me as a way of accepting people for who they are, but for being more understanding when someone has preconceived notions about me based on how I speak.