Accenting Language

I always thought that I spoke with a prestige dialect when I was growing up. Everyone I knew when I was younger spoke the same way that I spoke. The only other dialect I was exposed to was that of the Midwest because my aunt lived there for quite some time. Before she moved there I only knew of western dialects from the dramatized television shows in which every character spoke with a heavy Texan dialect. Once I moved upstate for college, I was able to hear the difference between my dialect and that of my friends who were born and raised upstate. Once I began teaching, I realized that the dialect with which I spoke was worse than I thought. I would pronounce the word dog with a long a vowel rather than the short o vowel. Likewise, I pronounced coffee as “cawfee.” Orange was pronounced “are-ange,” while Florida was pronounced “Flarida.” I have tried very hard to change the way I pronounce some of these words because I know that I must pronounce them the correct way in order to teach my students the correct way to sound out and spell these words. It is my attempt to avoid confusion. After student teaching upstate, and having fifth graders ask me if I surf because my “accent sounds like a surfer girl,” I realized that my students’ preconceived ideas about my language may affect how seriously they take me as a teacher. It is best to speak with a more prestige dialect for the benefit of my students’ learning. However, I do find that when I am home or casually with my friends, I tend to let my pronunciation of these words slip and I go back to my old ways. I have a “Long Island” accent and I was hit with this harsh truth when I visited my cousins in California a few years ago. My cousin’s friends knew I was from “Lawng Guyland” when we met, so they immediately asked me to pronounce a long list of words for them so they could witness my “funny” (as they put it) dialect. The second I opened my mouth, they were amazed at how I pronounced certain words (i.e., coffee, orange, Florida, or Long Island). This was the one and only time I had people make assumptions about me before I spoke. Once I spoke, they found my dialect interesting, but I think they thought it would be a lot thicker than it was; so they may have been a bit disappointed. I must admit, I have been one to make assumptions about others based on how they speak. I went to a very large Catholic high school in Fresh Meadows, Queens in New York. When I entered my freshman year of high school, I met many girls from Howard Beach. The second they opened their mouths, I could not take them seriously. Now, I tried hard not to judge or make assumptions, but their dialects seemed so outrageous, I thought they were joking at first. Once I got to know them, I realized it was childish to make assumptions, but hearing their stigmatized and seemingly extreme dialect threw me for a loop.