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Prestige dialects and General American | ||
Tags: Dialect | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6272 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 9 of 36 01 March 2009 at 1:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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In the UK, radio and TV broadcasters used to be selected who used RP (Received Pronunciation). This was a standardised, middle-classish kind of British English. Sometimes it, and/or the vocabulary used, went over the heads of listeners.
In the 1980s, regional accents started to be used, as RP lost ground. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pookiebear79 Groupie United States Joined 6030 days ago 76 posts - 142 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Swedish, Italian | Message 10 of 36 02 March 2009 at 3:01am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm always a bit amused by the description of "General American" and the area that is supposedly "regional accent free." To my west coast ear, people from the midwest (Illinois, etc.) often speak a little funny, like saying "Baaahb" instead of Bob. I *know* that's a silly generalization, but what can I say, I've lived in California my entire life. I consider Californians (at least, Californians born and raised here by native English speakers) to have a "non-accent." ;)
I guess most people feel that way about their own area because that's what they're used to hearing. But honestly, I think many/most other areas of the US have noticeable accents. In some cases I even find Canadian accents less "foreign" sounding than those of other areas within the US, regardless of the geographical reality. That may be influenced by the TV I tend to watch, though. I watch tons of British and some Canadian programming, so I guess my ear is accustomed more to the various British and Canadian accents/speech patterns, so even though they're different, my brain perceives them as 'normal' and pleasant, (ok, most UK regional accents, anyway -there are a few exceptions);) whereas if I was listening to someone from, say, Wisconsin, I'd be all "Huh?" Now, I'm not really saying the California "non-accent" is any better or worse than any others, so please take this in the lighthearted manner I intended it. I'm just giving the perception I (and many others around me) have regarding American regional accents and so-called "General American." If my personal background makes any difference, that's coming from a person who has been a Northern CA city-dweller her whole life...I realize that in actuality even within California (still sticking to native English speakers) there are variations. For instance, the stereotypical "Valley Girl" really does manifest itself in what I call "ditzy speak"-That is, some people actually do use inflection like that of some 80's movie "Valley Girl" or "Surfer Dude," but I think it's more put on or influenced by TV than natural. It's not as exaggerated as you'd see on TV or in a movie, and it's not *that* common, but it's also not a 100% false stereotype. It happens. I've especially noticed this in teenagers, but maybe that's not a good example because they kind of speak their own language anyway. ;) Also, sometimes you will encounter people who are CA born and bred but talk kind of "country." (Southern US) (Including a few members of my extended family, alas.) Now, it could be they were around parents who came from other regions of the US or something, but it's always...interesting to hear a California native talking with a pseudo Southern accent. Again, it may be something they "put on." I don't know. :P Edited by pookiebear79 on 02 March 2009 at 3:02am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LilleOSC Senior Member United States lille.theoffside.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6691 days ago 545 posts - 546 votes 4 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 11 of 36 03 March 2009 at 2:19am | IP Logged | ||
I can't really notice the differences. I have lately tried to listen closely to news anchors on television. I noticed that some do sound different than many Americans (ex: Brian Williams, Jim Lehrer). To me most Americans sound the same except for differences in the pronunciation of certain words. Parts of the South and Western U.S. do sound pretty different to me, however. I live in Pennsylvania. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| paparaciii Diglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6336 days ago 204 posts - 223 votes Speaks: Latvian*, Russian Studies: English | Message 12 of 36 05 March 2009 at 12:27am | IP Logged | ||
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I have many times heard about that "very noticable" New York accent. Could anyone tell me about those special characteristic features that New York accent has and maybe give me some examples on youtube? I'd really appreciate that.
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| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6272 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 13 of 36 05 March 2009 at 6:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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Can't think of anything on YouTube, but goil as a New York pronunciation for girl is one example.
Yiddishisms are supposed to be common in NY English, not necessarily confined to people from Jewish backgrounds. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jeito Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5817 days ago 55 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Mandarin, German, Italian, Portuguese | Message 14 of 36 06 March 2009 at 5:15am | IP Logged | ||
I disagree with this statement. I think one of the biggest differences is in vowels. Philadelphia, New York, Boston, New England all pronounce vowels with very noticeable differences within less than 200 miles of each other. I can hear somebody from Chicago as soon as they pronounce an "A." They sound like Tina Fey imitating Sarah Palin. A lot of people living near the Canadian border have broader more-Canadian like vowels. Even in the South where there are heavy regional accents, you can tell the vowels of somebody from Louisiana from somebody in Georgia. I think the United States still has a lot of regional accents. What makes the standard accent neutral is that you cannot pinpoint what part of the country the person comes from his/her speech (unlike Southern, Northeastern, Mid-Western accents which are a dead giveaway). All this is even more complicated because as Americans, we are very mobile and often move around the country with resulting changes in speech as we acquire influences from where we are living and discard vesitges of where we grew up. That makes the discussion of accents in the West a little difficult to generalize because so many people moved there, but are not FROM there. Unless you are a Valley Girl or a Surfer Dude, educated speech is California is mostly neutral. If by prestige dialect, the original poster meant is there an accent that automatically signals the person speaking comes from a class of privilege, wealth, education, or breeding. I would say to a much lesser degree than is true in Britain. Status, education, class in the U.S. tends to be reflected more how one expresses oneself, and to some extent what vocabulary one uses, more so than in a person's accent. Edited by Jeito on 06 March 2009 at 5:19am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jeito Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5817 days ago 55 posts - 63 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Mandarin, German, Italian, Portuguese | Message 15 of 36 06 March 2009 at 5:31am | IP Logged | ||
Do they play a lot of American movies in Lativa? If so, are the dubbed in Latvian or in Engliah with Latvian subtitles. Any of them filmed in New York will have somebody with a NY accent. Or even better, check YouTube to see if anybody has uploaded any episodes of The Real Housewives of New York City off Bravo TV. It is a reality show about these ditzy (that's slang for vapid) broads (that's slang for women) who think they are hot stuff (that's slang for very important). New Yorkers not only have a noticeable accent they use a lot of slang, vulgarisms and colorful speech. Edited by Jeito on 06 March 2009 at 5:39am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ninja Bunny Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5792 days ago 42 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Dutch, Danish, Mandarin, Afrikaans, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French | Message 16 of 36 07 March 2009 at 7:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi pookiebear,
I'm born and raised in Seattle. I'm not sure about northern California but SoCal has a definite accent: exaggerated dipthongs and 'created' dipthongs where they don't exist. E.g. "dee-ew" for "do," "sha-ow" for "show" etc. though it's starting to creep into our speech up here as well. Where I live, Seattle and Vancouver (Pacific northwest and southwestern coastal Canada) share an accent even though we have different dialects. It's very close to American Standard/American Broadcast. Midatlantic English (an accent halfway between American and British) is popular in theater and film. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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