Most of the people that I encounter in Letcher County, where I teach sociology at Southeast Community College, speak a dialect of English, that is distinctive in its pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. It is not, as columnist Bill Bishop reminded us in his September 20 column, a carefully preserved remnant of Elizabethan English. Nor are Eastern Kentuckian s alone in their use of a regional dialect. Individuals who hail from the coast of Maine, to the Louisiana bayous all have identifiable patterns of speech. There are dozens of different dialects of English, tied to geographic regions, social class and ethnic groups.
Social linguists teach that all dialects have grammar.
Many people mistakenly believe that grammar is what you find in textbooks. Grammar is nothing more, nor nothing less than a set of rules. These rules are understood implicitly by all persons who speak the same dialect. The rules make speech mutually understood by all members of the group. People also mistakenly think that grammar is something that we must be formally taught.