Letter: Threatened by linguistic Stalinism

Sir: Susan Elkin describes her linguistic encounters with a young Liverpudlian who, it seems, could understand her (self-proclaimed) standard English and his own dialect; she could not understand his language.

This is clearly missing a huge point. The reason why he does not speak Susan Elkin's language must be that he chooses not to. Language is more than the sum of noises and words, it represents a high degree of identity. We have seen examples this century where languages such as Hebrew and Afrikaans have grown because they represent an identity their users seek.

In the United States, urban African-Americans appear to be developing a language deliberately incomprehensible because, after so many years of disappointments and false hopes, they no longer want to be understood by middle-class whites. Susan Elkin may feel her Liverpudlian lad's prospects will be transformed by speaking standard English - he does not.

Yours sincerely, RICHARD SLACK London, E17