An interesting idea that was brought to my attention throughout this semester was the notion of dialects being in essence, their own language. With this said, why are we taught to be ashamed of our dialects, especially if you have a southern dialect? What point was there ever a unified language in the United States, from which we are judged to be speaking correctly or incorrectly? .
The reason I am interested in the dialect issue is that I, myself have a dialect stemming from the mountains of eastern Kentucky. My dialect isn't pronounced as most of the people from around my hometown, but it's still there and very noticeable. Before the ideas that I learned from this class, I had mixed feelings on the issue of trying to change the way I speak. Now I have learned that my dialect is a part of me and my culture and in a sense it is its very own language. This helps me to feel more confident around people who are not from home. .
American Tongues is a major catalyst to the ideas behind this paper. The program opened up my mind to how strong a dialect can be and how different they can be from one another, even though we live so close to each other. The British sounding dialect of the upper class of Boston and the dialect of the fishermen was a profound opening of my eyes to the differences in the way that people speak here in America. A black spot on America culture was seen when the film showed judgmental woman who ended her relationship, because she found out her man had a southern dialect. This woman is not alone in her feelings. This point of the film was the most emotional disturbing for me, than any of the rest of the film. The reason being is that if a person has any type of northern dialect it is no big deal, but if you have a southern accent you are assumed to be a moron. I believe this stereotype needs to be corrected in our culture, but unfortunately it's going to remain, at least for the rest of my life.