AIBU / When is it dialect and when is it just wrong?

[ecuse]

We live in East London/Essex border. I'm not from here originally. My little girl (6) has an East London accent. I expect this, this is where she is from, it's fine, in fact it suits her.

But she's all with the "you woz", "we woz", "wozzn't you, mummy?". I understand she picks this up from her whole peer group. BUT. When I go into school for reading morning etc etc I realise all 4 of the teachers she has had so far say "you woz" etc.

AIBU to think that teachers should not do this? They are teaching her literacy and that's just gramatically incorrect.

I don't think I'd ever have the bottle to bring it up but AIBU to be vexed, or am I just being all Hyacinth Bucket about it? Is it legitimate dialect or is it just wrong?

Actually, RP jolly well is a regional dialect. Just one that acquired greater prestige than others.

A southern one.

swiss - I will admit, mine was actually a rhetorical question.

But as an accent it doesn't identify with a region?

And blond, RP is regional and it's important to acknowledge that when teaching.

Anyway I'll concede - gone off topic!

Lucky I teach little ones!

Um ... RP is a UK-specific accent, surely?! And one associated with the South.

I was very pleased when the cavalry arrived, LRD

Indeed, LRD, see below!! Great minds...

Not the cavalry, just us gurt mardy-arses who take exception to this nonsense equating accent/dialect with educational prestige.

LRD / because how can you spell with thanks from wiv fanks?! Nothing to do with rp.

"RP is not a regional accent in terms of English linguistics so no, not everyone speaks with a regional accent."

So what? Everyone speaks with an accent and no one accent is better than another.

The use of the third person when talking to children is, perhaps, a reason they don't pick up correct grammar from the very start.

Today I heard a colleague talking to her own 4 year old, 'Mummy's a naughty girl because Mummy ...'

I hear it all the time: 'Mummy's brought your crackers; give Mummy your trunks.' It's cloying!

Can you imagine a teacher doing that?
'Teacher wants you to colour in the nouns.'

'Sir/Miss/Mrs Thompson wants you to run to the end of the field and back.'

My own PFB told a stranger her full name was Ishell (instead of Michelle) when she was just 2. This suggested to me that she was working out the conventions of grammar at the beginning of her language journey.

What's your point Gwenhwyfar?

I didn't say anything about one accent being better than any other.

There is a certain morning tv programme which has been known to put up subtitles when they have Scottish people speaking. There are some, quite a lot of English accents on the same programme which I can not understand.
It is difficult enough to learn languages without the native speakers being so poor in pronunciation. It is not just about accents or colloquialisms it is making sense of words like "innit" being put in strange places. I have taken it that "innit" means isn't it but don't understand why it is inserted like a spacer word.

sky, how can you spell 'with thanks' from 'with thanks'?!

Nothing to do with RP, indeed, but much to do with the fact that modern English spelling is complex.

Now, back in the period whose language I study and teach, 'thanks' began with a letter thorn, and usually had a medial 'o' rather than 'a'. From those beginnings we have London Type II standard English. More or less by accident, this becomes the 'default'. But, of course - as you'll know - it's not phonetically particularly dominant. So, how do we explain that shift to five year olds? It is, of course, necessary, isn't it?

Myself, I just go with talking about dialects and explaining to children that the sounds they make relate to certain marks on the page. It's never really confused anyone yet.

Ok, LRD, now you don't need to answer my PM - I know what you teach now!

Just saw it anyway.

But, as a medievalist, it does bemuse me.

There is no logical reason why a certain set of marks on the page must always equate to one single sound.

Same here only in a different language. Or collection of varieties. Well, I don't teach it.

how does one get the pronunciation from the word 'right' or 'knife' or 'christopher' or any of a million idiosyncratic words?? you just learn them.

"Unlike a previous Scottish poster, I've never used 'yous'."

You should, it's really useful

There was thou and ye and they combined and left a gap for a yous... like outwith replacing without when without no longer meant what outwith means.

Basically leave a linguistic gap and Scots will fill it, lol.

Obviously it's not standard English and I was being tongue in cheek when I defended my use of it, but it's not even dialect, Scots is a language, bet I wouldn't have been pulled up on it if sibh had popped out accidentally instead or vosotros or vous in fact.

RP is not a regional accent in terms of English linguistics so no, not everyone speaks with a regional accent

Well, my linguistics professor would beg to differ. As would my phonology professor.

YANBU, OP.