（Some notes aft my reading of a chapter of the txt bk of Sociolinguistics)

 

    We live in a wolrd of linguistic prejudice.

 

    Some accent are beautiful; others are unpleasant... some are worshiped and passionately imitated; some are rejected by their users.

 

    This  phenomonon reminds me of our attitude towards the varieties of Cantoness. In Gd, most of the residents speak Cantoness. Accents vary greatly from different area in Gd. The most pleasant and standard Cantoness are spoken  Guangzhou. as people believe. The "non-standard' Cantoness speakers (especailly the youths) try to imitate the Guangzhou accent. They adopt the accent  while talking to friends of Gz; back to  their home town, they insist it when get together with their fellows.

 

    Perhaps that is a kind of code-switching. They shift to the prestige accent while facing friends in Gz in order to  make themselves closer to the locals. That is probably called "accommodation". Their behavior is the convergence one.

 

   However, it seems to be out of the question to find out explanation of the latter situation. Why they still use the accent in the home town?

 

   It is said that linguistic prejudice is "a fact of life". I have recognized it. Why can't we preserve our accent at home and stress the identity of our hometown. Thought our accent may not sound "nice", it is still a heritige passed down to us. Whether it is beautiful or not, keep it as a symbol of solidarity.