"There are, alas, social disadvantages in the United States from having nonstandard speech patterns" This is, of course, true not only in the US but in many ot

"There are, alas, social disadvantages in the United States from having nonstandard speech patterns" This is, of course, true not only in the US but in many other countries and often popularized in plays, movies, etc., Eliza Doolittle. In German, where people are quite possessive of their regional dialects, Bayerisch speakers are sometimes derided. And it's not just nonstandard speech patterns, either. Unique names that flag people to a certain minority group may also bring social disadvantages. This is generally the case with the tradition of inventive/unique names among African-Americas (http://www.salon.com/2008/08/25/creative_black_names/ http://www.salon.com/2008/08/25/creative_black_names/ or see the paper at http://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/qjecon/v119y2004i3p767-805.html http://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/qjecon/v119y2004i3p767-805.html).