[etni] Re: comparative adjectives and geographical slurs

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Hi all,

Gary from Canada said:
"Well, New York! Maybe that explains it.
Isn't that where they drink 'a cup of kwafee'?
Maybe it works on the **streets** of NY, but I still say it is 'slum 
English' and indicates one's level of education. Would you ever hear it
on 
the (local) news (TV, radio), for example?
Maybe we're just 'snobbisher' than they are in Brooklyn and the Bronx."

My 5 pointers consistently ask me this question, and recently, when I
requested that they research this issue, they found many sites, similar
to this one, that approve both ways--more/most tired, and
tireder/tiredest.  In fact, according to the site, the latter is used
more...
http://kfa.univ.szczecin.pl/histvar/trends.html
(and before disparaging the source, check which source the web site
relied on!)

Being a former New Yorker, as well as living in many other places in
America, I'd like to point out to Gary that you might want to open a map
of the United States, so you can understand that New York is a very
large geographical area, and is not limited to the Brooklyn or Bronx,
both of which I value greatly, since I was born in Brooklyn, and lived
in the Bronx (and there was and still is so much variety within those
two boroughs, that it is impossible to identify one usage.  Perhaps
you've been hanging out with too many taxi drivers, Gary!)

But having also lived in rural upstate New York, and in many cities,
from the tri-city area to Buffalo, I can tell you that English usage,
accents, etc. vary greatly. Not only that, I worked quite a bit in many
places in Florida, and most prefer "tireder and tiredest"...yes, Gary,
even among educated Southerners, many of whom have their doctorates. 

I think that accusing someone of using slum English, because they
recommend a perfectly acceptable--and even more popular--variation of
expression, is counterproductive, and contrary to the spirit of this
list.  I appreciate the various ways that people from many English
speaking countries--and especially the great variety within
countries--speak and use English.  And explaining this variety, along
with tolerance of the ways in which people speak English, is what we as
teachers are supposed to do.

Ellen Hoffenberg-Serfaty




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