ABSTRACT
Up to the present we have considered some of the most common misconceptions about Creole and other non-standard speech, but we have not discussed in any depth the implications of these misconceptions. This is a serious omission inasmuch as there is a good deal of evidence that attitudes towards a language and attitudes towards speakers of that language are closely related. As we have already pointed out, the socially powerful are almost invariably felt to be well spoken, while the speech of the poor is universally stigmatized. It seems as if we lend a certain respectability to our disapproval of other people by channelling it into criticisms of the way they speak.
