Standard US English Dialect?

Tue Apr 15 22:26:07 UTC 2008

Pay attention Scott.  Did I say right or wrong English?  No.  Someone here has written about "Where the worst English is spoken" and thus they have a clue about "best" English.  Why don't you lecture that person about "right and wrong" and get off my case.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at authorhouse.com.

> Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:04:54 -0500
> From: slafaive at GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Re: Standard US English Dialect?
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Scot LaFaive
> Subject: Re: Standard US English Dialect?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>>I would think that the best English as a standard should be easiest
> to understant.
>>I would be interested to know which accent is clearest and least misunderstood.
>
> There are so many things wrong with these statements that I'm a little
> befuddled about how to respond.
>
> I hope you see that what is easy for one person to understand isn't
> necessarily easy for another. Being from the Midland North I might
> have trouble understanding someone from the bayous of Louisiana, but
> they should understand each other quite well. It seems like you
> consistently fail to realize this (or just enjoy provoking others):
> "proper" English (or any language) is relative to who is speaking and
> listening. There is no right or wrong English when people are
> communicating.
>
> Scot
>
> On Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 2:44 PM, Tom Zurinskas  wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Tom Zurinskas
>> Subject: Re: Standard US English Dialect?
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> I think this is wonderful. I'm looking for a model of best spoken English. I assume m-w.com is such a model. I do quibble about "awe-dropping" for some words and the initial sound of short i ~i instead of short e ~e for words starting with "ex".
>>
>> I would think that the best English as a standard should be easiest to understant. Coming from the FAA where English is the standard language of Air Traffic Control, I would be interested to know which accent is clearest and least misunderstood.
>>
>> Note that the FAA teaches that number 9 be pronounced NIE-ner to preclude confusion with 5. These are too close phonetically.
>>
>> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
>> See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at authorhouse.com.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:44:33 +0200
>>> From: preston at MSU.EDU
>>> Subject: Re: Standard US English Dialect?
>>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>
>>> Yes, DC always does surprisingly well, but the East Coaster the South
>>> is the better it does as well. SC higher than GA, GA higher than AL,
>>> etc....We actually have some qualitative evidence for this; some of
>>> the fieldworkers asked respondents why they ranked the DC area so
>>> high, and many said that they figured good English was spoke in the
>>> capital. This seemed truer of southern and south midland respondents
>>> than of northern ones (who know they speak the best English).
>>>
>>> dInIs
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>>-----------------------
>>>>Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>>Poster: David Bowie
>>>>Subject: Re: Standard US English Dialect?
>>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>>From: Dennis Preston
>>>>> Poster: LanDi Liu
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>> As far as NYC middle class goes, that means very little as far as
>>>>>> accents go. Because of the large amount of people that live in NYC
>>>>>> that weren't born there, and the fact that different boroughs in NYC
>>>>>> have different accents to begin with, and the fact that class and
>>>>>> accent aren't so easily correlated anymore, I don't think anyone could
>>>>>> say what a NYC middle class accent is. So probably the people in
>>>>>> Japan and China (and elsewhere) think capital = standard. Most people
>>>>>> think Beijing Chinese is standard, but that's a myth as well.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Washington DC is the capital of the US, not NYC.
>>>>
>>>>And of course, in dInIs's own work (see "Where the worst English is
>>>>spoken"), you find that Washington DC does remarkably well in US folks'
>>>>ratings for correctness--so maybe this capital==standard (or at least
>>>>nearly standard) thing works in the US, as well.
>>>>
>>>>David, who grew up near enough to DC to disbelieve that NYC's really as
>>>>important a city as it seems to believe
>>>>
>>>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dennis R. Preston
>>> University Distinguished Professor
>>> Department of English
>>> Morrill Hall 15-C
>>> Michigan State University
>>> East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> _________________________________________________________________
>> More immediate than e-mail? Get instant access with Windows Live Messenger.
>> http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refresh_instantaccess_042008
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

_________________________________________________________________
More immediate than e-mail? Get instant access with Windows Live Messenger.
http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refresh_instantaccess_042008

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