Sojourner Truth's Ain T I A Woman

English has been the dominant global language since the nineteenth century. As a result of British imperialism, the language was spread to every region of the world. Since the twentieth century the United States’ role as the global economic and cultural power, has helped to maintain the global influence of the English language. Various dialects of English reflect cultural, racial and socioeconomic aspects of these groups (“What Privilege”) Standard English has often been defined as the correct form of the English language. This is emphasized everywhere from public schools to mass media. In the United States it is viewed as the default dialect, providing a linguistic common ground for all speakers. Despite this Standard English is not grammatically or expressively superior to any other English dialect.
Today, many English-speaking countries view Standard English as the superior or preferred dialect. However this was not always the truth. In 1066 when the Normans invaded England, the lower class spoke English, while the upper class spoke French.(Blast …show more content…
In the speech “Ain’t I a Woman” by Sojourner Truth, she speaks in a clearly non-standard dialect of English (National Park Service). Since she was a slave from her birth to the age of thirty, it was quite insane to expect her to speak in a dialect so different from her own. From the perspective of Truth, using the word Ain’t correctly reflects the African American dialect of that time period. Changing the title to “Am I not a woman” would not correct but instead remove the personality, experiences and message of the speaker. The speech was written by Sojourner Truth to address the discrimination that she faced as a black woman in America (National Park Service). This dialect of English reflected the average daily discourse and accents of slaves in the United States at the time. Trying to correct this essay would simply defeat its purpose