~ (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Alice Faber]

Amy West wrote:
> My understanding is that a particular regional accent (Midlands?) is
> taken to be the most neutral (most mutually intelligible?) and so is
> used as the base for the "standard" American accent (for dictionary
> prons, for broadcasting). Calling it standard doesn't change the fact
> that it is in fact a regional accent that has been privileged by
> being deemed the norm. Dictionary prons. list regional variants;
> individual broadcasters vary from the "standard."
>
> My understanding is that just as in historical languages we recognize
> that the languages of our edited texts are in fact a construct
> reflecting a dominant dialect or reflecting aspects (there is no
> manuscript recording Old Norse or Old English exactly as it appears
> in our grammars), standard American English is a construct not spoken
> perfectly by anyone individual, and the standard American accent is a
> construct not spoken perfectly by anyone individual.

Well, the thing is that a lot of Americans--at least those who think
about these things at all--*believe* that there's a midwestern,
broadcasting standard accent. However, if you actually listen to
broadcasters given a national platform by the networks, there's very
little commonality to their speech, except insofar as they speak a
relatively educated variety of North American English. Peter Jennings
was *obviously* from Canada, just as Dan Rather is *obviously* from
Texas. Tom Brokaw might count as mid-western (let's not get into whether
South Dakota counts as mid-west!); however, speech pathologists used to
regularly criticize his being given a national platform, primarily on
the basis of his overly dark /l/s. Going back a generation, I doubt
there was much to Edward R Murrow's stentorian radio voice that most
Americans would identify with. And Walter Cronkite was clearly western.

--
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Alice Faber                                    faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                           tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                        fax (203) 865-8963

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