End of ADS-L Digest - 7 Dec 1997 to 8 Dec 1997
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Subject: ADS-L Digest - 8 Dec 1997 to 9 Dec 1997

There are 26 messages totalling 970 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

 1. Posts and Getting Along
 2. Hudson Valley -- some questions from a nonprofessional
 3. ADS-L; Hazard; Legal Sharks; Linguistics Dictionary; Dog Names (2)
 4. Posts from non-professionals (2)
 5. Taffy (2)
 6. Morris's Word and Phrase Origins
 7. Openness (3)
 8. FAQ?
 9. RE>FAQ? (2)
 10. Usageasters: mea culpa
 11. Publishing our journals
 12. FAQ/Welcome
 13. The list; FAQ (3)
 14. SALSA conference
 15. SALSA
 16. ADS-L Archive Search
 17. Gravegate; Judas Q. Priest; Sidewalk Santas; Glass Ceiling,
   YAP(Yuppie)
 18. Interdepartmental Degree Programs in Linguistics

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Date:  Mon, 8 Dec 1997 23:58:48 -0500
From:  TERRY IRONS <t.irons[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MOREHEAD-ST.EDU>
Subject: Posts and Getting Along

ADS-L was created as a forum for discussing and furthering the interests
and goals of the American Dialect Society.

To make short shrift of the questions raised in recent posts, which were
discussed long before Jesse or I became the list-owners, it is not in the
best interests of ADS-L to moderate discussion or to limit participation to
dues paying members of ADS. Either option amounts to censoring the
variation in speech and language that we say we aim to describe.

To pursue an example, the language that Steve, one of my students, used in
his comments about AAVE was no less rude than some of the replies to his
remarks. But the "professionals" took offense.

The result is that you have silenced his voice.

But perhaps you professionals need to know what voice you have silenced.

Steve is a black american from Mississipi. He finds the concept of
African-American to be objectionable. He is not from Africa, and there
is no cultural heritage from Africa that informs or defines who he is.

Steve found the comments of the so-called white male professionals about the
language that he and his family speak everyday to be *crap* and he said so.
Perhaps he did not follow some concept of "netiquette" in so doing. Is
that a reason to deny the truth of what he had to say? Was that an
excuse for being rude to him?

Several of my students were excited about examining language variation.
The attitude expressed by some members of this list has
destroyed entirely their enthusiasm and opportunities have been lost.

Everything Jody wrote rings true with me. We need to live with each
other and accept ourselves as we are. What else is there?

Virtually, Terry
(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)=(*)
Terry Lynn Irons    t.irons[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]morehead-st.edu
Voice Mail:       (606) 783-5164
Snail Mail:       UPO 604 Morehead, KY 40351
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