plausible?

[Donald M. Lance]

>On Mon, 4 Oct 1999, Michael K. Gottlieb wrote:
>
>>- Is the ultimate homogenizaton of American dialects plausible?

And Bethany Dumas responded:

>I think "fictional" is a more accurate term that "plausible." I have
>been reading for nearly 30 years that dialects are dying in this
>country, that we are all beginnign to sound just alike, Yet, I can drive
>less than a mile in any dirextion from my home, which is only two
>miles from my UT office, and introduce you to a speaker of a dialect
>sufficiently different from yours, most of you [dInIs is an exception, of
>course), that you will have trouble understanding the speaker.

Where there's a myth, there's often a fact.  I suspect that the fact
underlying the myth of homogenization of American dialects is that certain
public-use registers like tv and radio announcing, acting,
professionals-on-the-job, etc are sounding more alike.  Some people, like
English teachers, use this register all the time.  But out there in the
trenches where the buck hits the road (to mix metaphors) people choose and
apparently prefer to maintain and promote regional, socio-economic, and
ethnic variation.

DMLance