Subject: accents : linguistnet in the news

since victor raskin kindly kept me supplied with the responses he received to his july 6 query about the westfield accents petition , i was unusually well prepared to respond when a reporter meredith o'brien phoned me july 8 to ask if i had an opinion as a linguist on the matter ; when i told her about the linguistnet discussion of it , she was quite surprised and interested to learn of the existence of such a thing , and it turned out her ediotr was too , and the result was an article which is as much about linguistnet as about accents . the first such that i know of . i contacted victor to get his permission to use what i 'd gotten from him , but of course neither of us could contact quickly enough the many linguists whose responses i was faxing to the newspaper . i figured , and victor agreed , that messages sent to linguistnet are more or less public , and that in any case this was a very good and positive opportunity for us to do some educating of the public , which we are always looking for opportunities for . i certainly hope everyone who was quoted in the article agrees that i did the right thing in making the linguistnet discussion available to the reporter . i think the reporter did a good job of it . here 's the text of her article : springfield ( mass . ) union - news , westfield edition , friday , july 10 , 1992 , p . 1 linguists criticize accent position by meredith o'brien westfield - victor raskin , a linguistics professor at purdue university in indiana , was quite perplexed when he saw an article in his local newspaper about westfield 's petition to prohibit instructors with accents from teaching elementary school students . " has anybody else seen a weird piece in the newspaper about a measure taken by the greek mayor of a small massachusetts town with a very ethnically mixed population to prevent people with foreign accents to be employed as grade school teachers , " raskin asked subscribers to a linguistics computer network this week . " besides killing my own chances of ever teaching grade school over there , is this measure nonsensical linguistically ? " he queried . responses to raskin 's question have been coming into the world-wide computer network called " linguistnet " all week , some from as far away as the netherlands and australia . and those who did respond had nothing good to say about the petition . raskin is one of several linguists who have assailed the petition , which has also been chastized by education officials - - including the state secretary of education - - as unfounded and racist . the school committee 's curriculum subcommittee wednesday night unanimously rejected the petition because the committee 's attorney told them it was legally unenforceable . the full committee will vote on the issue at its next meeting which has not yet been scheduled . the petition 's organizer , laura lee whitten , had no comment on the subcommittee 's decision . meanwhile , the eight linguists who called into " linguistnet " on their computers concluded that parents should not be worried about their elementary school children acquiring an accent from their teachers because the chances of that happening are next to impossible . network subscriber , barbara partee , chairwoman of the linguistics department at the university of massachusetts , concurs with the conclusions of her colleagues . " what research exists on this matter makes it very clear that it would be nearly impossible to be influenced by the accent of a grade school teacher " , she said wednesday . " young children , almost universally , pick up their accents from their peers . " she said if people looked at immigrant families where the children were born in this country , they would find that the children have not adopted their parents ' accent . many others agreed . " i used to live in boston , where you can cut the local accent with a knife , and played the organ for a church in arlington , mass . , where the pastor and his wife were from the midwest , " craig thiersch , a linguistics professor from tilburg university in the netherlands said . " but all their children had strong ' towny ' accents . " " my own rather limited experience is that children are n't influenced by the foreign accents of their parents , much less their teachers , " echoed university of georgia professor michael a . covington . " kids get their accents from their peers , " agreed susan ervin - tripp from the university of california at berkeley . while the linguists roundly criticized the petition , some said they could understand why some parents signed it . noting the problems some college students have in understanding some of their foreign professors , they acknowledged that a teacher 's english should be understandable . but the existence of an accent is not a reason to rule out the hiring of an instructor , they said . " my own opinion is that it is legitimate to require that teachers be understandable to their students , but that is presumably a normal job qualification that does not require a petition , " partee said . she said at umass , foreign instructors and professors are screened to assure their english can be understood . " but no one has ever been disqualified because of an accent . " [ end of newpaper article . ] in the same paper , there was a nice column by william raspberry . much of it repeats things we ' ve been over on the net ; i extract here a bit from the ending : " as one who was taught french by a german - accented professor who used to amuse us with her talk of " consonants and wowels , " i understand why some parents might be wary of having their youngsters taught reading by teachers whose pronunciations are too far from standard . but what in this nation of a thousand accents is too far from standard ? and who determines it ? how much of the whole business is simple prejudice against hispanic teachers ? how does one draw the line between a legitimate interest in occupational qualification and an illegitimate interest in ethnicity or national origin ? where is the universal principle ? kant might not want to hear this , but the principle is the problem . a good principal would handle the thing without working up a sweat . she 'd listen , make some experience-based judgment as to whether a teacher 's accent might prove an impediment to beginning readers and make the appropriate assignment . she might not even be able to tell you , in close cases , what tipped the judgment one way or another , but would that really be so awful ? only if you try to make it a kantian universal . make it a principle , and you ' re stuck willy-nilly with language panels , ethnic spokespersons , teachers ' union reps and , of course , lawyers . before it 's over , people will stop speaking to each other across racial or ethnic lines , and everybody will be working to get everybody else fired or defeated for re-election . the problem , of course , will remain unresolved . as they say in massachusetts ( or would if they thought of it ) , some things can be addressed in terms of the philosopher 's " universal law . " some kant .
