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 ...
I’m from Monroe County, not the city proper, but to his Western Wayne County ears I have (had) an accent—speak very fast and run my words together.
Do you have a Monroe County (Monroe) accent? How do you like Arizona?
I would suggest that the great lakes area has always been a melting pot.
My mom was from MI and my dad moved there from the Bootheel when he was about 4 years old. They married and moved to FL where I was born. On top of that I had to go to speech classes in school to get rid of the Jersey “r” I picked up from my sister that also was born in FL.
Now I am in MO and lets just say my accent and pronunciation of words are wide and varied. I also use different sayings that I am not sure of where they came from originally. Some I know are from MI.
I have been known to switch accents mid sentence and not just staying with U.S accents but I use Brit, Irish and Scots just as easy.
I am one of those people that can easily pick up accents and sayings when I hear them. I even do it mentally when reading books.
Cleveland has no accent.
Now can any of youse get me a nice sangwich?
Growing up as an Army brat, it was always interesting to hear the varied accents whenever we moved to a new place. As a result, my accent is peppered with small hints of my travels.
My family, for several generations back, was originally from the midwest area near Omaha, which has been described as the area with the most clear enunciation of words.
I always believed that Barack Obama’s quick rise in politics owed a lot to the fact that he really had a Kansas accent from his mother and grandparents. The accent gave him the sound of middle America, which most Americans find non-threatening, and this threw people off.
If we could give him an accent coinciding with his political beliefs, it would definitly be Russian .... USSR commie-style. Or better yet, old school Mao Chinese.
Wow, I DO speak like many of those words, except the ones that sound like improper English. LOL What no “yous?” As in “Yous kids!”
Well at least I don’t say “chimley.”
Ann Arbor is Berkley East. Very nice area geographically, great museums, beautiful parks, but people are as SNOB-EEEE as all get out.
Then there's ON-velope instead of EN-velope ...
And I actually heard a Minnesotan pronounce the state bird (the loon, ironically enough) as LEW-un -- two syllables.
Apparently Canadians only have one vowel.
“O”. “Owt n obowt n a bowt”. (out and about in a boat)
There’s a South Philly dialect that cannot be understood. It’s a sort of a gargling “L” sound like when Homer Simpson is thinking about food. They can turn it on and off.
Years ago it was found that local dialects were dieing because most people were beginning to imitate the speech patterns of the TV news reporters and game show hosts.
TRUE STORY: Years ago we had a Yankee move down here and take a job. One day he went into a local cafe and ordered a hamburger and french fries.
When the waitress brought them, he said...”I need a fock!”
The waitress, shocked, said “WHAT!”
He said “A fock, something to eat my french fries with!”
“Do you have a Monroe County (Monroe) accent? How do you like Arizona?”
I don’t have an accent, but the rest of the country sure does. After living 63 years in Monroe, the winters started becoming a nuisance. Now instead of being confined to indoors for 6 months in Michigan due to the cold and snow, I am now confined to the indoors in Arizona for 6 months due to the heat. I guess the plus is I don’t have to shovel the sunshine and I get to see my 2 granddaughters (5& 7) almost every day.
Get the fock out of here!!
French Fries you say?
I have never seen a man eat french fries with a fock unless they were swimming in chili, cheese and onions.
Fargo is one of my favorite movies because of the small talk with accents.
Hilarious!
The foot in the chipper is cool too.
My New Jersey wife (African American) pronounced that word: "crowns."
I tried to get her to hear what she was saying before she mostly lost her power of speech after a stroke.
Kind of like around these parts, you can always tell a non-native because they pronounce Nevada as "Nah-vah-da," when it is pronounced "Ne-vad-uh" by citizens of the state.
How about this one: "Jeet?" (Did you eat yet?)
We have a town near here in Texas called Nevada.
It is pronounced “Neh Vah Dah”
Oops
It is pronounced “Nah Vay Dah”
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