1. Position Statement & Implications
Position Statements • Social Dialects and Implications of the Position on Social Dialects III - 87
Social Dialects
Committee on the Status of Racial Minorities
Prepared by the Committee on the Status of Racial completion of the project were: Maureen E. Aldes,
Minorities: Dolores E. Battle (chair), Maureen E. Aldes, Dolores E. Battle (chair), Lorraine Cole (ex officio),
Regina Grantham, Murray Halfond, Gail A. Harris, Nilda Regina Grantham, Murray Halfond, Gail A. Harris,
Morgenstern-Lopez, Gloria M. Smith, Sandra L. Terrell, Nilda Morgenstern-Lopez, Gloria M. Smith, and
and Lorraine Cole (ex officio). Sandra L. Terrell. The following individuals are grate-
With the close of the 1970s, this country has seen fully acknowledged for their contributions to the fi-
language rights come to be regarded as civil rights. nal draft of the position paper: Sol Adler, M. Parker
With court cases such as Larry P. v. Riles and the Ann Anderson, Donn F. Bailey, Nick Bountress, Faye
Arbor Decision, the role of the speech-language pa- Vaughn-Cooke, Aaron Favors, Algeania Freeman,
thologist relative to social dialects needed resolution. Sandra Holley, Beatrice Jimenez, John R. Miller,
In 1982, the Legislative Council unanimously ap- Howard Mims, Joan Payne-Johnson, Nevis Phillips,
proved the position paper on social dialects prepared Altheria C. Scott, Charlena Seymour, Harry Seymour,
by the Committee on the Status of Racial Minorities. Ida Stockman, Orlando Taylor, Florence Wiener,
Ronald Williams, Gwendolyn Wilson.
The development of such a position paper re-
quired an in-depth examination of the controversial The English language is composed of many lin-
social issues that have been debated by many profes- guistic varieties, such as Black English,* standard
sions over the past two decades. Three different philo- English, Appalachian English, southern English, New
sophical approaches to social dialects prevailed: York dialect, and Spanish influenced English. The
(1) no intervention, (2) promotion of bidialectalism, features of social dialects are systematic and highly
and (3) eradication of nonstandard usage. For two regular and cross all linguistic parameters, i.e., pho-
years, the pros and cons of each philosophy were nology, morphology, syntax, semantics, lexicon,
studied by the Committee on the Status of Racial pragmatics, suprasegmental features, and kinesics.
Minorities. Although each dialect of English has distinguishing
characteristics, the majority of linguistic features of
The initial draft of the paper was submitted to the English language are common to each of the va-
selected ASHA members for comment, each chosen rieties of English. The existence of these varieties is
on the basis of his or her research or clinical back- the result of historical and social factors. For example,
grounds or other professional interest in the area of due to historical factors, the majority of Black English
social dialects. Sixty-three percent of those contacted speakers are Black. However, due to social factors, not
responded, most with cogent comments that reflect all Black individuals are Black English speakers.
the current controversy and the need for direction
and resolution on this topic by the Association. From The issue of social dialects for the field of speech-
this peer review, the final draft was developed. language pathology is extremely complex, as indi-
cated by the continuous controversy across the nation
The members of the Committee on the Status of over the past two decades. There has been confusion
Racial Minorities who were instrumental in the
Reference this material as: Social dialects. (1983, Septem- *Some Black professionals prefer to use the term Ebonics
ber). Asha, 25, p. 23–27. instead of the more popularly used term Black English.
Derived from the words ebony and phonics, the term
Index terms: Social dialects (see dialects), linguistic varia-
Ebonics is intended to avoid the focus on race and em-
tion, language difference, multicultural, Black English,
phasize the ethnolinguistic origin and evolution of this
role of speech-language pathologist, minorities, ebonics
variety of the English language.

2. III - 88 ASHA Desk Reference Volume 3 • Speech-Language Pathology
among professionals regarding the role of the speech- the particular dialect as a rule-governed linguistic
language pathologist with reference to speakers of system, knowledge of the phonological and gram-
social dialects. There has been no consistent philoso- matical features of the dialect, and knowledge of
phy regarding the approach of service delivery to nondiscriminatory testing procedures. Once the dif-
speakers of social dialects. As a result, some speech- ference/disorder distinctions have been made, it is
language pathologists have denied clinical services to the role of the speech-language pathologist to treat
speakers of social dialects who have requested ser- only those features or characteristics that are true
vices. Other speech-language pathologists have errors and not attributable to the dialect.
treated social dialects as though they were commu- Aside from the traditionally recognized role, the
nicative disorders. speech-language pathologist may also be available to
It is the position of the American Speech-Lan- provide elective clinical services to nonstandard En-
guage-Hearing Association (ASHA) that no dialectal glish speakers who do not present a disorder. The role
variety of English is a disorder or a pathological form of the speech-language pathologist for these indi-
of speech or language. Each social dialect is adequate viduals is to provide the desired competency in stan-
as a functional and effective variety of English. Each dard English without jeopardizing the integrity of the
serves a communication function as well as a social individual’s first dialect. The approach must be func-
solidarity function. It maintains the communication tional and based on context-specific appropriateness
network and the social construct of the community of the given dialect.
of speakers who use it. Furthermore, each is a sym- Provision of elective services to nonstandard
bolic representation of the historical, social, and cul- English speakers requires sensitivity and competency
tural background of the speakers. For example, there in at least three areas: linguistic features of the dia-
is strong evidence that many of the features of Black lect, linguistic contrastive analysis procedures, and
English represent linguistic Africanisms. the effects of attitudes toward dialects. It is prerequi-
However, society has adopted the linguistic ide- site for the speech-language pathologist to have a
alization model that standard English is the linguis- thorough understanding and appreciation for the
tic archetype. Standard English is the linguistic vari- community and culture of the nonstandard English
ety used by government, the mass media, business, speaker. Further, it is a requirement that the speech-
education, science, and the arts. Therefore, there may language pathologist have thorough knowledge of
be nonstandard English speakers who find it advan- the linguistic rules of the particular dialect.
tageous to have access to the use of standard English. It remains the priority of the speech-language
The traditional role of the speech-language pa- pathologist to continue to serve the truly communi-
thologist has been to provide clinical services to the catively handicapped. However, for nonstandard
communicatively handicapped. It is indeed possible English speakers who seek elective clinical services,
for dialect speakers to have linguistic disorders the speech-language pathologist may be available to
within the dialect. An essential step toward making provide such services. The speech-language patholo-
accurate assessments of communicative disorders is gist may also serve in a consultative role to assist
to distinguish between those aspects of linguistic educators in utilizing the features of the nonstandard
variation that represent the diversity of the English dialect to facilitate the learning of reading and writ-
language from those that represent speech, language, ing in standard English. Just as competencies are as-
and hearing disorders. The speech-language patholo- sumed and necessary in the treatment of communi-
gist must have certain competencies to distinguish cative disorders, competencies are also necessary in
between dialectal differences and communicative the provision of elective clinical services to nonstand-
disorders. These competencies include knowledge of ard English speakers.