Arnold is the prototypical 4th grader. He’s a football-headed, jazz and baseball-loving boy who lives in the city in a multi-racial boarding house with his grandparents, pet pig and numerous others. Okay, so maybe he’s not the average kid. The great part of Hey Arnold is the fact that his life is ordinary in the most extraordinary ways possible. Arnold’s everyday life brings him into contact with people from all different kinds of races, cultures and dialects. For example, Arnold hangs out with his African American best friend and lives with an Asian American and a man from the former Czechoslovakia. Language plays an extremely important (albeit sometimes subtle) role in the television show. While the majority of dialects can be described as Standard English, differing dialects symbolize much more. In the ten episodes I have assessed for this project, (“6th Grade Girls,” “The Baseball,” “Gerald vs. Jamie O,” “Heat,” “Snow,” “The List,” “The Haunted Train,” “Operation: Ruthless,” “The Vacant Lot” and “Baby Oskar”) there are many varying dialects. From the superstandard English of nerds and the covert prestige of the working class to African American Vernacular English, code-switching from English to Spanish and Asian, Czech and New York accented English, the show presents many different dialects while also often using them in stereotypical ways.
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