LL-L 'Phonology' 2006.10.31 (09) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 31 October 2006 * Volume 09
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From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
Subject: Phonology

Dear Lowlanders,

Tomorrow (November 1) will be the first day of the Native American Heritage Month
in the USA.  I suggest we bear it in mind as a loose theme and extend it to
aboriginal-related issues globally, within a Lowlands context.

Let me kick it off.

It has long fascinated me to observe that aboriginal people of North America tend
to have just slight variations of a general "accent" in English.  Apparently this
covers most ethnicities and geographical areas, also most ancestral linguistic
backgrounds.  While I could take a guess about the evolution of this, I'd love to
know facts, at least other people's ideas.

To me, this group of varieties sounds closest to "typical" Canadian English
varieties and also to English varieties of parts of Montana, Wyoming, the
Dacotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin.  However, the Native American varieties have
their own features and configurations thereof, most of which I haven't yet
figured out.  One feature I can think of is monophthong [o:] (e.g., in "go") and
[e:] (e.g., in "late").  There are also some interesting voice production things
going on as well as somewhat monotone ("flat") intonation.

Last night I watched an interesting TV documentary about Nunavut, Northern Canada
(north of Quebec).  Its population speaks predominantly Inuktitut (the largest
group of "Eskimo" varieties).  Yet, the predominant "accent" in English is very
close to that of "Indian" people's.

One reason for the seemingly uniform variety of English over so large an area and
used by people of very diverse linguistic backgrounds may be that the English
variety of a certain Aboriginal community (which could have been ethnically and
linguistically mixed) spread to other Aboriginal communities by way of frequent
contacts, including intertribal powwows and potlatches (which are ancient
traditions).  Also, I wouldn't be surprised if these varieties were based on an
older form of American English.

Does anyone have any knowledge and/or ideas about this?

Thanks.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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