"Authentic pronunciation"

[Wilson Gray]

On Sun, Oct 3, 2010 at 10:31 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:

> The stereotypical Minnesota pronunciation is that of the Coen
> Brothers' "Fargo", as e.g. in the speech of Sheriff Gunderson
> (Frances McDormand).

I thought that that was exaggeration for effect and not meant to be a
reflection of reality. (The preceding is meant merely as an
observation, not as a counter-claim.) The varieties of U.S. speech
that have struck me as strange are not numerous. At the age of
thirteen, I was very much surprised by the Bronx version of BE spoken
by the cousin who introduced me to the infamous slang-term, _PHATT_,
of mythological origin. Some time later, I heard Philly BE spoken and
found it also quite unusual. The first time that I heard working-class
Bostonian spoken, I thought that it surely had to be *the* ugliest
variety of English spoken in the U.S., bar none.

I don't why this should be the case, but it seems *to me* that all
rural, white farm-folk, wherever they may be, somehow speak with
essentially the same, creepy, flesh-crawling, lynch-mob accent,
whether they be down east, down home, midwest or out west. I'm certain
that this is such a complete misapprehension on my part that it's most
likely not even on the same coast as the fact of the matter. But,
there it is.

FWIW, it's only in Northern California that I have ever *had* to come
into social contact with such speakers - UC Davis wasn't founded as
the "University of California Farm" for nothing - and I have found
them to pose no more of a threat - indeed, probably less of one - WRT
overt expressions of racism than any random, white Angeleno.
--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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