Linguistic Discrimination and its Relationship to Linguistic Inequality

Linguistic Discrimination and its Relationship to Linguistic Inequality
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Linguistic Discrimination and its Relationship to Linguistic Inequality
Linguistic discrimination refers to the mistreatment of people because of their choice of language and speech features, such as first language, accent, vocabulary size (if the speaker uses complicated and varied words), modality, and grammar. In France, for instance, an Occitan speaker would almost certainly be handled differently than a native French speaker. An individual can automatically shape assumptions about the next person's income, schooling, socioeconomic class, character, or other traits based on a disparity in language use, leading to discrimination (The LASELC and ACLU Foundation of North California, 2002). Tove et al. (1989) described linguistic discrimination as belief systems used to legitimize, implement, and propagate unequal distributions of wealth and influence (both physical and non-physical entities) among groups identified by language. Legal aid at work (2021) further defined it as when people are treated negatively due to their native language or other aspects of their linguistic skills. Sign language has been primarily discriminated against over time in so many ways.
It has been established that research into sign languages was initially hindered by wide held belief that sign languages were only visual manifestations of verbal languages or primitive communication forms and not standalone languages (Bloomfield, 1933). After Stokoe (1960) demonstrated that signs are made up of sub-lexical components was sign language taken seriously, and its linguistic status appreciated. At some point, the Congress of Milan banned deaf schools throughout Europe on the premise that speech was expressly superior over the signing and that the deaf-mute ought to be restored to society by being subjected to oral language teaching (Ramsammy, 2021).
Linguistic inequality refers to a person's inability to exploit a particular dialect of a speech within a specific context due to a lack of awareness or some other disadvantage (IGI global, 1988). Linguistic inequality can be broken down into communicative inequality, subjective inequality, and strictly linguistic inequality (Hudson, 1996). Subjective inequality is all about what people think of each other's expressions. In certain cultures, people are assigned various intellect, friendliness, and other values based on how they talk. As a result, whatever qualities are highly regarded, some speakers are believed to have more than they do just because they talk in the "right" manner, while others are believed to have less since their expression gives the wrong impression. As a result, in the context of sign language, it leads to inequality because it is used as a criterion for judging individuals, even though it is a highly inaccurate benchmark, much as oral language solely defines the standards (Hudson, 1996).
Conversational or communicative inequality is concerned with comprehension and application of linguistic elements to communicate effectively than with understanding the linguistic elements themselves. For example, when using speech ...