Status Anxiety

31 October 2009

Americans taking offence on behalf of poor ‘victimised’ foreigners is offensive — to me

It’s also a form of snobbery. In the States, pronouncing foreign words ‘correctly’ is a high-status indicator. It’s not just about demonstrating your racial sensitivity. It’s a way of advertising your membership of the elite. Saying ‘py-el-a’ rather than ‘py-ay-a’ is to risk being thought of as lower class.

I don’t mean that they’re concerned about appearing not very well travelled, though that comes into it. It’s more a question of manners. Not tiptoeing around other cultures is considered impolite. To make a ‘racially insensitive’ remark is to reveal a lack of familiarity with the code. They’re worried about appearing ignorant, but not of other cultures. What concerns them is that people might think they don’t know the form. Being politically correct is also socially correct — which helps explain its ubiquity. When a political trend is reinforced by snobbery it becomes an irresistible force, which helps explain the success of the environmental movement.

As a general rule in America, the higher a person’s status, the more liberal their politics. The blue states are more affluent than the red states — and political correctness is more ubiquitous in New York and Los Angeles than it is in ‘the flyover states’. The reason the media is liberal is because it’s a high-status profession. The same goes for medicine and law. At the very top of American society, expressing a rightwing opinion is virtually a form of sedition. You can count the number of Republican celebrities on one hand.

The same isn’t true of England, at least not yet. I was in New York at the time of the 1997 general election and when I saw the television pictures of all the luvvies linking arms and singing ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ I thought we were heading in the same direction. For a long period it became very unfashionable among the elite to support the Conservative party. But that trend has now been reversed, thanks to a combination of David Cameron’s ‘progressive’ agenda and Gordon Brown’s incompetence. Then again, my complacency about this may be misplaced. No doubt James Delingpole would argue that Britain’s ruling class is just as liberal as its American counterpart and the only way Cameron has been able to win them round is by abandoning his Conservative principles.

A world in which all ethnic groups speak slightly differently, following their own idiosyncratic rules when it comes to pronouncing words not in their language, is preferable to one in which everyone is forced to pronounce things ‘correctly’ by a bunch of guilty white people. In the end, that’s more ‘imperialist’ than saying ‘py-el-a’.

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Ruth Fitch

November 1st, 2009 12:37pm Report this comment

I agree with you - it's very irritating. I used to hate it when newsreaders insisted on calling the Republic of Ireland 'Eire' - they didn't refer to Germany as Deutchsland, so why Ireland? And it does sound really affected too.

Bronwynmac

November 3rd, 2009 9:00pm Report this comment

I completely agree. While an American- somewhat liberal but more middle class, I do pronounce paella- pi-ay-a only because that is how I was taught to pronounce it. I read your blog on the Top Chef website and agreed with everything you had to say. I still agree with everything. I live in Texas and in a city where, no doubt, you would be run out of town- being beat with liberal wet noodles (or whatever they beat people with. Your words would, no doubt, hit a very large indignant nerve. I could go on but you get the idea. (and I say Texas , not Tehas [Tejas] ).

Bronwynmac

November 3rd, 2009 9:15pm Report this comment

I totally agree with you- agreed with you when I read your blog on the Top Chef website. I am an American, somewhat liberal and middle class. I do say ‘pi-ay-a’ only because that is how I was taught to say it. I believe everything you say is right on. I live in Texas and in a city where your words would hit a very large indignant nerve. You would be run out of town by a bunch of flaming liberal- them beating you with their wet noodles (or whatever they beat people with). You’re welcome in our house anytime! Oh, and I say ‘Te-X-as’ not ‘Tay-has’. (I apologize if this posts twice, my browser crashed when posting)

JayBay

November 6th, 2009 8:59pm Report this comment

I love Americans, but I have always been amused by their habit of pronouncing the "A" in foreign sounding words in a very southern English "AR" way ("Parsta, Milarn" etc.)I have always taken it as further evidence of their endearing lack of worldliness. To hear that they regard it as a mark of sophistication is an absolute delight!

ken kem

November 20th, 2009 2:36pm Report this comment

Reminds me of when SNL did a skit many years ago where they had a Waspish newscaster speaking very good English but when they had to say "Nicaragua" they did so as if they were born in that country. Jimmy Smits, also part of the skit, looked at the newscaster like they had two heads. He asked something along the lines of "WTF? Why are speaking like that?" The newscaster looked at Smits and didn't have a clue what he was going on about.

Murican

November 20th, 2009 5:23pm Report this comment

Toby, Toby, Toby. It was *you*, my friend, who started the row by sneeringly slamming people for pronouncing the double-ll as a y. If you had simply said pa-ell-a while they said pa-ay-ya, no one would have said anything or even paused. But once you attacked, they defended. No one attacked you for pa-ell-a. They attacked you for your intolerance!

So chill out, dude, as we say here in California. (Another SPanish word by the way, even if our Gov Schwarzengger says Kal-ee-for-nee-a.) Using anglicized pronunciations of the romance languages "gl" "gn" and "ll" is ho hum stuff. If you refrain from slamming us for that, we'll forgive you for brutalizing the language that Americans have made the world's standard.

Murican

November 20th, 2009 5:59pm Report this comment

JayBay, you’re being overbroad. In the US, we have r-droppers (a New Englander’s “pahk your cah in ha-vahd yahd,” and a southerner’s “so fah, dahling, it's a boah”). And we also have r-adders (a “ga-rarge” is where you park your car; our nation’s capital is “War-shing-ton”). Either way, no one in the US regards r-adding as a “mark of sophistication.” It’s considered acceptable, if a touch odd. But I will plead guilty to this: a large segment of the US can listen to a cockney accent and think “those British sure sound classy.” Go figure.

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