Posted on 08/24/2012 2:10:57 PM PDT by JerseyanExile
On July 4, 1960, the Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard rang in Independence Day with a dire Associated Press report by one Norma Gauhn headlined “American Dialects Disappearing.” The problem, according to “speech experts,” was the homogenizing effect of “mass communications, compulsory education, [and] the mobility of restless Americans.” These conformist pressures have only intensified in the half-century since the AP warned “that within four generations virtually all regional U.S. speech differences will be gone.” And so as we enter the predicted twilight of regional American English, it’s no surprise that publications as venerable as the Economist now confirm what our collective intuition tells us: “Television and the Internet are definitely doing something to our regional accents: A Boston accent that would have seemed weak in the John F. Kennedy years now sounds thick by comparison.”
Before you start weeping into your chowdah, though, I have some news: All these people are wrong. Not about the Boston accent, necessarily; that one might really be receding. But American linguistic diversity as a whole isn’t dying—it’s thriving. Despite our gut-level hunch about the direction of the language; despite the fact that 70-cent, three-minute, off-peak, coast-to-coast long-distance calls that cost four inflation-adjusted dollars in 1970 are now free; despite cheap travel, YouTube, and the globalization of film and television, American dialects are actually diverging.
There are multiple examples of such divergence. But none is as dramatic, as baffling to linguists, and as mysteriously under the collective radar as what’s happening in the cities that ring the Great Lakes. From Syracuse, N.Y., in the east to Milwaukee in the west, 34 million Americans are revolutionizing the sound of English. Linguists first noted aspects of the change in the late 1960s.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Pretty much.
It’s weird. The old Slovenian and Polish women talk like they’re from Jersey. With Italians, it’s the guys.
Irish guys like me speak perfectly, of course.
My son had a college roommate from Texas. I mentioned he must not have lived there for long since he sounded like he was from Ohio. He told me he lived there his whole life but that he was the only one in the family that talked “right.” LOL when he said that. He said he picked it up from TV.
73
I've never heard anyone talk like that. What city talks like this?
Wonderful article, thanks
73
Love the study of the English language. ty for posting this quite interesting article.
I am from what is now NW London, England. Wife is from W.London. Reside at the border with Upper Michigan, twin cities with Sault Ste Msrie, Ontario. Army child live in eight different locations in England. Know accents. Find Yoopers quite articulate and note that where certain groups settled there variations occur. Finnish descendants seem to have a slightly different edge with their dialect and so on.
Always chuckle at the common and garden variety of English people like myself, who put on a "special accent" when talking to someone of higher class. This is usually on the telephone.
Some of us need a jolly good laugh and this thread has provided it. This after the stress of the Akin affair.
you forgot the old timers who called Port Huron Port Urine.
you forgot the old timers who called Port Huron Port Urine.
Chicago really would be the right (yet cliched) answer.
Isn’t that Wis CAHN sin ?
Here in Brazil, regional accents remain strong, despite mass media. Much as in the northeast in the US, accents are strong among the proles, weak amongst the yuppies.
The auto companies recruited southerners with the belief that they were less likely to unionize.
I've been to Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and I do not recall hearing "cot" pronouneced "cat," "but" like "bought," or "bit" like "bet."
I do marvel at how New Zealanders say "best" as "beast."
Yah, dat’s the place.
My late FIL said it “West-CON-sin.” He was from Rochester. I always wanted to ask him if he’s ever been to “East-CON-sin” but he was hard of hearing so I’m sure he would have replied, “Sure! You know we go to “West-CON-sin” every summer.”
” It was funny when, after hearing us N. Ohioans talk, they said, “You’re not from around here.” I restrained myself from saying, “No shit? How could you tell?”
I got the same thing when I moved to Colorado. The checkout girl at the supermarket could not understand me at all then the bagger thought it would be amusing to make fun of my accent. He was downright insulting and doesn’t know how close he came to being outside my ‘comfort zone’.
Oh yeah, we wuz visitin’ some Texans!
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