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Geographical DialectsRead the article this discussion is about
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» MindyL - Language Fun Hello Kara,I, too, am a language nut. I liked your article and look forward to seeing this topic expand in the future. I moved around the United States quite a bit as a child, and it was faschinating to see the differences in the way people speak firsthand like that. In fact, I refer to my mother's sister as both an "aunt" and an "ant" interchangeably due to my exposure to different regional dialects of American English. People here in Illinois, where I am currently attending school, still look at me funny when I say something odd. welcome to Suite 101 -- posted by MindyL » plox - Hi Kara, I enjoyed the article. Hi Kara, I enjoyed the article. Sometimes I tell people that I only speak one language, Southern, although I can read and write in English.What is strange to me is that we still have such distinctive regional dialects in spite of hearing the same voices on radio and tv all over the country. Seems to depend more on the people we are talking with than the ones we just listen to. I have had the odd experience of a townsman saying,"You aren't from around here, are you?" after I had houseguests for a week (not from this region). I don't know about other regions, but some of us are apt to exaggerate the accent at times because we enjoy the funny looks on the faces of "Yankees". Other times, we may lay it on thick to each other to make a point or joke...based on the media version of southerners I think...The Southern Bell, the Southern Gentleman, the Homicidal Redneck, the Good Ole Boy. The last three tend to blend depending on the circumstances, thus describing a proper Southern man. I don't know if Trailer Trash (female)is regional or not. -- posted by plox » Tina_Coruth - Very interesting! Hi Kara,What an interesting article. I enjoyed reading it. It seems that dialects are parts of mini cultures that live within a culture. I've met so many people from different parts of the country on the Internet. While I can't hear their accents, the dialects certainly pop up. One that lives on seems to be for a sandwhich the "grinder" or "sub" or "hoagy" etc. Great article. Welcome to Suite101! -- posted by Tina_Coruth » Earthdog - Language! Kara, I really enjoyed your article - I have become fascinated by differences in the English language since my husband finally convinced me that my family (from West, by God, Virginia) had been pronouncing "pen" differently than the rest of the US. I was actually in my 30s, and could not hear the difference in how he and I pronounce "pen," "hen," "ten," etc. It was all "pin" and "tin" to me. It's odd because I never actually lived in West Virginia - we were a military family and I had lived all over the country, but I pronounce many words the way my parents do. Now, after his careful coaching, I can hear the difference when he says words carefully for me, but I still can't reproduce the sound he makes!Danita LaSage -- posted by Earthdog » chuckn - Good Topic! Here's a quote I laughed at:The quantity of consonants in the English language is constant. If omitted in one place, they turn up in another. When a Bostonian "pahks his cah," the lost R's migrate southwest, causing a Texan to "warsh" his car and invest in "erl" wells. Good luck! -- posted by chuckn » plox - Re: Language! In response to message posted by Earthdog:You reminded me of something...a speechteacher for first graders told me my son was doing fairly well except for mispronouncing one word so that it sounded the same as another word. As I could not hear the difference when she said the two words(whatever they were), I told her to give up on it because it was stressful for him. No one in his family would ever know whether he was saying it right or wrong! -- posted by plox » kvandam - Re: Language! In response to message posted by Earthdog:Its amazing how we train our ears to lose sensitivity that is not useful in our dialects. In my case, I pronounce "Don" and "Dawn" (as well as "caught"/"cot") identically. Now I live in a part of the country where those are quite different vowels, and I have to teach students the diference between them! They all have a pretty good laugh as I contort my mouth to do their "caught" vowel. --Kara -- posted by kvandam
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