Judgements on Accents and Pronunciations–An Inexcusable Reality

No matter who you are and what you sound like, you have most likely run into the situation of meeting someone who sounds different from you. Whether it be the letter they enunciate most in a word or the way they pronounce a word altogether, it’s okay to notice these differences. What’s not okay is to judge individuals based on these differences.

Throughout the United States, people speak differently. I’m from the East coast. Coming to school in the Midwest for college was interesting for me in terms of dialect and pronunciation. People always tend to “make fun” of the way New Yorkers speak (as seen below).

One of my good friends at Ohio State is named Hannah. She’s from Chicago. Saying her name–a quite simple task–has become a big controversy. I pronounce it H-AH-NA, which is the way I have heard it pronounced in my area of New York throughout my entire life. That being said, she pronounces it H-ANNE-NA–a more commonly accepted pronunciation in the Midwest.

Getting back to my little anecdote, I always feel so bad because it’s her name and I should pronounce it the way she thinks it is properly pronounced. But changing the way you pronounce simple letter pairings and words is a lot more difficult than one would think.

All over the country, people speak differently. There are southern accents, New York accents, Bostonian accents, etc. And of course, there are accents that can be recognized as coming from other areas and even other countries around the world. With these pronunciations also come some new vocabulary. For example, some people may say “that isn’t the right answer,” but some may say “that ain’t the right answer.”

It’s okay for there to be numerous ways to relay the same sort of message. But people tend to cross into dangerous territory when they make poor judgements based on accents and word choice.

Again, take the word “ain’t.” It isn’t commonly taught in schools, and in many districts throughout the U.S., teachers would actually look down upon a student that were to use it in a formal essay or assignment. It is unfair to place such a pressure on students to speak or write in a way that’s different from what they were taught in the “real world.” “Ain’t” is actually recognized by some of the largest, well-known dictionaries like the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster.

As explained in “The Right to be Literate: Literacy, Education, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline,” literacy should not be catered to certain groups with certain beliefs that live in certain areas. People speak differently and that should be accepted. The following quote from the article explains it perfectly:

“Literacy as a civil right really translates into “literacies” as a civil right, including children’s right to their own creative and cultural literate practice.”

Literacy varies and we must accept that variation. It’s impossible not to recognize differences in language. But it is necessary to prevent judgements of differentiation.