~ (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Scot LaFaive]

>The best possible outcome of this forum in my opinion would be unification
of dialects into one best possible for mass communication.

See, if you actually understood how and why dialects arise, you would find
this statement inane as well.

Scot

On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 1:57 PM, Tom Zurinskas <truespel at hotmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: ~ (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
> >
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