Peter John Trudgill (left), during the investiture act, this Friday in the Auditorium of the Campus de la Merced. /
Peter Trudgill charges in his lecture at UMU against «discrimination against people because of their dialect; is more patent than racism or sexism»
The English sociolinguist Peter Trudgill had to come, from this Friday an honorary doctorate from the University of Murcia (UMU), to vindicate the Murcian accent and charge against those who belittle it or make it an object of ridicule. With a degree from the University of Cambridge in 1966 and a doctorate from Edinburgh, Trudgill entered the ‘honoris causa’ doctorate this Friday with a master class that was also a plea in favor of the preservation of the dialects and regional particularities of languages in Europe, and a warning about the danger of discrimination for having a certain accent.
The sociolinguist, who has dedicated part of his career to the study of Murcian speech, emphasized the importance of fighting against what he called ‘linguicism’, which means prejudice and discrimination against people because of their language, dialect or accent. “The sad thing is that today linguicism is considerably more open and much more blatantly displayed than racism and sexism. People who would never think of making a racist comment may instead be unaware that they have criticized other people for ‘speak badly’, for having a ‘nasty accent’ or for speaking ‘useless language’”, he said in the Paraninfo of the UMU.
The sociolinguist, who has carried out studies to describe the vocal and consonantal functioning of the Murcian dialect, contributing to its dissemination in national and international forums, argued that “the connection between language and culture is very intimate, and the loss of languages and dialects it can easily lead to the disappearance of cultures.”
The doctor ‘honoris causa’ of the UMU lamented that the speakers abandon their native languages because they are ashamed of them. Something that «is not surprising if powerful and influential people have wrongly told them that they should be ashamed, that their dialects are unpleasant and humiliating. I hope this is no longer the case for the local dialect of Spanish spoken here in Murcia, but if it is still the case then it is something we should fight against.”
#British #linguist #honoris #causa #defense #Murcian #accent
