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#8554 10/22/00 04:04 PM
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Day-em. An ah thote yuall'ed be pleeyuzd with thuh caampluhment.

To find as twangy an accent as that you'd have to travel to the deep South: South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama.

I'd say that the US has about 8 distinct genres of accent: far North-East, Boston, New York City, ghetto, Wisconsin, Midwest, mild Kentucky twang and deep South.

The Midwestern accent is the dominant one. It stretches from Pennsylvania all the way to California. Florida, being a largely transplant population also has a fairly Midwestern accent.

The "Wisconsin" accent has a Canadian flavor and includes Minnesota as well. Detroit also has a hint of this accent.

To find the "ghetto" accent just go to any city's downtown area.

Does anyone agree with this or am I just crazy?


#8555 10/22/00 07:00 PM
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To find the "ghetto" accent just go to any city's downtown area

Hey Jazz,

Which brings up something I have been wondering about for a bit...a year or so ago we were hearing a lot about "Ebonics" being taught in schools as a language spoken by inner city African Americans. It was also said that there were some schools where only Ebonics was spoken.

I thought this was somewhat limiting for the children since, outside of their neighborhoods, Ebonics was not a spoken language and would therefore limit these children to their own back yard. What also seemed troubling was that the examples we got were simply examples of English being spoken incorrectly (errors in grammar, verb tenses, word definitions etc). This gave the impression that the language was a type of slang, and slang, being what it is, changes dramatically and quickly – thus rendering the teaching of it obsolete since it has changed by the time it reaches the blackboard.

I realize, though, that what is on the news is not alway accurate and often a reflection of the values of the that particular broadcaster.

Were the presented facts accurate? Are schools still teaching this language and is it really a "street" version of English?



#8556 10/23/00 12:31 AM
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I'd say that the US has about 8 distinct genres of accent: far North-East, Boston, New York City, ghetto, Wisconsin, Midwest, mild Kentucky twang and deep South.

JazzO, I figure you're joking, but at the risk of YARTing, may I respectfully direct you to the late, great Frederic Cassidy's Dictionary of American Regional English and its little sister, the Linguistic Atlases:

http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/dare/dare.html


#8557 10/23/00 02:24 AM
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I'd say that the US has about 8 distinct genres of accent: far North-East, Boston, New York City, ghetto, Wisconsin, Midwest, mild Kentucky twang and deep South.


Having lived in the 'DeepSouth' all my life (and having closest to your Midwestern accent myself, unless I have a reason to sound Southern) I could easily say that there are a dozen 'Southern' accents. Where I live now, I hardly notice any accent among the locals, though when I'm talking to someone from elsewhere they always comment that everyone (except me) here has such a strong accent. However when I go back to the town where I grew up I hear a very strong and very different accent from the Raleigh/Durham accent that I'm used to. Likewise, I have friends from other hometowns within a 150 mile radius, and when I hear their parents (or their) accents, they are very different than my parents' and from the 'local' way of speaking. I suppose if you wanted to be very general, you could say that there are just a few broad types of accents. However doing so would leave out vast variations within those categories.


#8558 10/23/00 02:44 AM
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I'd say that the US has about 8 distinct genres of accent:

To which I would add, "and only one speed: Excruciatingly slow" - at least for Antipodeans. No matter whence in the US, or Canada, they come, North Americans whose first English is English seem to take a week to finish a salutation. In the early 1980's, the NZ tourist board put together a promtional video narrated by one of our most popular newsreaders, a man noted for his careful enunciation. When it aired in the US, stations which carried it were apparently inundated with complaints that he was talking far too fast!


#8559 10/23/00 07:55 PM
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computerate adj. Computer literate

Thanks Pa.
I suppose I'm starting to see some benefits to the adjective (says he guardedly). But how the heck does this become a verb??

"I am computer literating"



#8560 10/23/00 09:03 PM
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it's a-totally-nother usage; computerate - to compute. aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrgh!!


#8561 10/23/00 09:06 PM
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[metallic voice]..this does not computerate...this does not computerate...this does not computerate...


#8562 10/23/00 10:11 PM
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[metallic voice]...this does not computERate...this does not computatER...this does not computatER...ER...ER...computate...computate...


#8563 10/23/00 10:23 PM
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So Fish, just like all diets, your plan to reduce the volume of posting starts...er...tomorrow?

Just a useless stat, but if Jackie had kept up your pace (136 posts in 13 days) since she registered, she'd now be at something in excess of 2200 posts, rather than her very modest 800+, and we'd all be that much the wiser about the stratospheric levels beyond Old Hand.


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