16.1469, Sum: American Dialects

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-16-1469. Mon May 09 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.1469, Sum: American Dialects

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1)
Date: 09-May-2005
From: Stan Anonby < stan-sandy_anonby at sil.org >
Subject: American Dialects

	
-------------------------Message 1 ----------------------------------
Date: Mon, 09 May 2005 13:24:32
From: Stan Anonby < stan-sandy_anonby at sil.org >
Subject: American Dialects


Regarding query: http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-1402.html#2

Hello,

The question I had was why uneducated white people on the sitcom Home
Improvement speak like southerners.

There were various interesting, interrelated answers, which I'll list.

1) There exists a "redneck accent", the speech of rural whites. This accent
   is perceived as funny and/or irritating.

2) A related reason given was that there is a "hillbilly accent". This
   hillbilly accent has been around TV since the Beverly Hillbillies, and
   has been very successful in sitcoms.

3) Many working class white people in the North are descended from
   Southerners who immigrated during WWII. An example given was Ypsilanti,
   a suburb of Detroit was nicknamed Ypsyntucky because so many of its
   residents were immigrants from Kentucky.

4) Many African Americans immigrated north around the same time and joined
   the working ranks. Their speech is similar to that of white southerners,
   and features of it spread throughout all the working class.

Stan Anonby

Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics

Subject Language(s): English (ENG)





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