A Crash Course in American Dialects (Alexandra Ambrose) Leave a reply .comments-link .entry-header “A Crash Course in American Dialects” by Alexandra Ambrose What exactly is the American accent? Is it a Southern drawl, Californian Valley girl speech, or slow Midwestern accent of a cowboy in a Western movie? Does one standard American dialect exist? (Reminder: a dialect is a pattern of pronunciation or grammar particular to a specific region.) The answer is no, not really. This is a rough (and oversimplified) map of American dialects: (Map from: www.ling.upenn.edu ) Here is another dialect map divided into more specific regions: (Map from: www.uta.fi) According to PBS’ video series (based on the wonderful book) “Do You Speak American?” there are 3 to 24 (or more) American dialects. The number depends on which linguistic expert you consult. In order to make this a little simpler, I will focus on the most commonly agreed upon dialects including New England, Lower or Coastal South, Upper South, Midlands, and Southern California or Valley Girl. Like, totally animated, right? First, let’s start with New England Dialects. These were influenced by Puritan settlers. They tend to omit the final r in words, so they would say fah rather than far. Some speakers also insert the word wicked into sentences to mean very. For example, “That was wicked awesome!” means that was really cool. Some words we use that come from New England dialect include: conniption fit, scrimp, pesky, and snicker. Then, we have the Lower or Coastal South associated with the Southern drawl style of speech. This area was first settled by English Royalists with their servants. These Royalists brought the Southern English drawl and use of ain’t with them to America. Southern dialect speakers also accent the first syllable of words, like gee-tar (guitar) or Jew-ly (July). Most vowels in Southern speech become long and accentuated, as in eggs turns into aigz. Some Southern words include: snickerdoodles, tacky, varmint, and vittles. Appalachian Region of the US. The Upper South or Appalachian region was settled by poor Scots Irish settlers during the 18th and early 19th century. In opposition to the Lower South, these speakers flatten diphthongs (or long vowels), making fire sound like far and tire sound like tar. Speakers of the Upper Southern Dialect are also characterized by an intrusive t in their speech, which makes once sound like oncet. Similarly, they have an h retention in words like it and ain’t which the would pronounce like hit and hain’t. Midwest Region of US The Midlands or Midwest was settled by Quakers and their dialect mixed with that of the later Swedish and German settlers in the area. Long vowels are also pronounced without diphthongs or long sounds. For example, wide would sound more like wahde. This area is considered the one with the least variation from place to place. West Region of US While most of the West (as you can see in the dialect maps) is grouped together as having a singular dialect, this really isn’t true. One of the distinctive variations has been brought about by the California Vowel Shift. While many other places experience vowel shifts, which are changes in the way vowels are pronounced, this one is significant because it characterizes a popular dialect the West Coast, especially, is known for: Valley Girl speech. This is characterized by the insertion of like, the pronunciation change of that to thaht, and uptalk, which ends every sentence like a question using a higher tone. This hasn’t just affected California however; many of the characteristics of this dialect are spreading throughout the U.S. This list of dialects does not include Chicano English, African American Vernacular English, or many other variations of dialects in smaller areas. The U.S. is not only a melting pot of cultural backgrounds, but it is also a melting pot of approaches to the English language. It’s easy to stereotype these dialects (and trust me, I have my own biases too), but they are all equally a valid part of our American identity. Each dialect is influenced by the first settlers of the area and continues to be used in order to preserve a sense of local identity. AA Sources: Dr. Edwin Battistella’s powerpoints for American Dialects The “Do You Speak American?” website: http://www.pbs.org/speak/