Legitimising dialect discrimination

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Are they making fun of your pronunciation again at the office, M?
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One would hope not. Papa spent a lot of money on my RP lessons and good schooling.

Hi,
two possible answers:

1) Some employers want to hire people who seem well educated, and well educated native speakers should usually be able to use a less "regionalized" variety at work, use a more formal register, and expressing their thoughts precisely, if the employer prefers you to do so.
I'm not saying those who say "hey, waddup y'all?" are uneducated. I'm saying educate

AnonymousWhy is dialect discrimination (unlike sexual or ethnic discrimination) still openly legitimised in the workplace?

In which country, old chap?

MrP

<2) It is discriminated against because... why not? There's always a good excuse to discriminate against something. It's not different from sexual and racial discrimination, because those are all still present.>

But are both those forms of discrimination openly legitimised?

For starters, the USA.

<In which country, old chap?

MrP>

Does it happen in your country, MrP?

AnonymousFor starters, the USA.

I expect lots of things happen in the USA. It's quite a big place.

Do you go there very often?

MrP

<I expect lots of things happen in the USA.>

But do you expect that dialect discrimination is openly legitimised in the workplace there?

I do go to the states often. You?

It has to do with notions of correctness associated with the standard language. It is my experience that the vast majority of people, even the highly educated, have no interest in language as a phenomenon and are unaware of the insights of linguists. They feel, quite wrongly but perfectly understandably, that dialects are corrupted forms of the standard. The more educated you are the more time yo