dialects

[James Smith]

Maybe Beard is asserting that, although local accents
may be numerous, there is no identifiable regional
accent for the west (other than a lack of one of the
eastern accents).



--- "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
wrote:

> On Jun 22, 2006, at 8:06 AM, Larry Horn wrote:
>
> > ... Or that Youpers, born and bred in the U.P. of
> > Michigan, are phonologically indistinguishable
> > from Texans.  Or (if there's an exception for
> > those south-of-whatever) from Utahns.  Maybe he
> > was misquoted?
>
> alas, no.  he asserts that once settlers went west
> of ohio, their
> accents started to blend together, and then it was
> all one
> undifferentiated accent, right out to california and
> oregon.
>
> you'd have to have a tin ear not to hear accent
> differences here on
> the west coast, stemming in part from significant
> differences north
> to south in the origin of the majority of settlers
> (new england in
> the north, the southwest in the south), but also
> related to urban vs.
> rural and coastal vs. inland differences in
> settlement.
>
> arnold
>
>
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> http://www.americandialect.org
>


James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org