Kathryn Remlinger Newfies, Cajuns, Hillbillies, and Yoopers: Ideal Speakers, Authentic Locals, and Gender

Grand Valley State University
Department of English
1 Campus Drive
Allendale, MI 49401
remlingk@gvsu.edu

Abstract

Identity and language attitudes are inseparable factors affecting language variation. People's reactions to dialects reveal their perceptions of speakers of those dialects (Edwards 1982, Preston 1994, Long & Preston 2002). Schilling-Estes (1998) explains that language attitudes and identity are linked by the notion that the authentic local is "authentic" because he is the "best" speaker of the local variety. Her research shows that notions of the "authentic" local and "best" speaker are inextricably tied to gender: the person who is described as the "authentic" local and "best" speakre is typically a man. This paper analyzes how images of the ideal speaker and the authentic local interact with gender peceptions and language attitudes to maintain language-based gender stereotypes. These stereotypes include the best speaker and the authentic local as male and the standard speaker and non-local (what Hazen (2002) terms "extended identity") as female. The study relies on critical discourse analysis to investigate characterizations of dialect speakers and regional varieties portrayed in the media (namely film, TV, and comics), discussed in sociolinguistic literature, and described by speakers. Preliminary analysis reveals how dynamics among gender, identity, and language attitudes affect androcentric worldview that fosters traditional masculine values based on stereotypical gendered language use. This prespective reinforces the dichotomization of gender, which futher contributes to normative notions of language use, especially for women and for men who do not fit hegemonic notions of masculinity.

References:

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