Chesapeake Bay dialects dying: Washington Post.

[Dan Goodman]

Bay's Dialects Slowly Dying
As Watermen Leave and Washington Encroaches, Distinct Sounds Disappear

By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 19, 2005; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36333-2005Feb18.htm
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  Linguists are careful to stress that there is not one single
Chesapeake Bay dialect but rather a vast array of different accents and
vocabularies.

There are distinctively southern speakers, like Tidewater Virginians who
say "kyar" when they mean "car." Further north are the residents of
"Bawlmer, Merlin," and along the Eastern Shore, in isolated waterman's
communities, people turn "wife" into "wuife."

But to the west of this cacophony, there is Washington -- a demographic
behemoth, breaker of dialects.

--
Dan Goodman
Journal http://www.livejournal.com/users/dsgood/
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All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.
John Arbuthnot (1667-1735), Scottish writer, physician.