An Analysis of Dialects and How They Are neither Linguistically Superior nor Inferior to One Another

Dialects are not good or bad, nice or nasty, right or wrong – they are just different from one another, and it is the mark of a civilised society that it tolerates different dialects just as it tolerates different races, religions, and sexes (Trudgill, 1994). The above quote reflects a common view among sociolinguists today that dialects are neither superior nor inferior to one another, at least in a linguistic sense (socially or politically dialects may well be regarded as such by many people, as described below). In a society where it is felt that no ethnicity, religion and gender should be considered better or worse than any others it, therefore, follows that a person’s language(s) or dialect(s) should likewise not be associated with any kind of stigma. The reality, unfortunately, is that discrimination remains. Many people throughout the world view certain dialects as inferior to the "standard" or "prestige" dialect (Trudgill, 1994). However, just as efforts are being made to improve racial harmony, so too can understanding of dialectal equality be enhanced. Programmes to educate the public about these issues are already taking place in various countries (Siegel, 1999). In this paper, I will argue that all dialects are essentially equal, each with its own merits and a right to exist alongside other dialects. Nevertheless, a certain amount of attention needs to be paid to public opinion concerning the status of dialects, and in some fields such as language instruction, it may be necessary to focus mainly on the prestige dialect for reasons discussed below.