~ (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Tom Zurinskas]

How much phonetic difference is there between these folks; One word in a hundred. 1%,  5%  10%?  what constitutes a lot or a little difference.  Any measures?



Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
see truespel.com


----------------------------------------
> Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:00:28 -0500
> From: faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU
> Subject: Re: ~ (UNCLASSIFIED)
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Alice Faber
> Organization: Haskins Laboratories
> Subject: Re: ~ (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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.
>
> --
> ==============================================================================
> Alice Faber faber at haskins.yale.edu
> Haskins Laboratories tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
> New Haven, CT 06511 USA fax (203) 865-8963
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live™: E-mail. Chat. Share. Get more ways to connect.
http://windowslive.com/howitworks?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t2_allup_howitworks_022009

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