American Dialect Map....

I have seen this graphic before, and as someone who has been called on to do many types of dialects in past work, it is a somewhat accurate, and a good general description of the regions. It is a good place to start if you are interested in this area of language, and colloquialisms, and how they come about...before the internet, it was not as easy to research...

What I would like to see again, is the same regional map layout of the UK...I saw something a long time ago, but do not recall where. If anyone has seen this - it would be nice to see again.

I don't know..... My mother was from boston, and originally had a bostonian accent. She had to laugh at cliff clavins bad attempt at a bostonian accent. American accents are dissappearing! OK, SOME might say they are all becomming midwestern. Over my life, I have seen texas, new york, new jersey, boston, etc... go from having STRONG accents to often having NONE! Chris christie was BORN in new jersey, and doesn't seem to have an accent!

Steve

It is true, they are disappearing to an extent, due to broadcasting, the regional lines have become blurred, or "americanized" and "anglicized"...

Many Americans are surprised when they hear actors speak in their "normal' voices, only to discover they are actually English, or Australian...

Many have come to rely on "broadcaster speak" as a standard like "BBC English"...

Stephen Colbert, for instance, is from Charleston, SC, but as a boy listened to radio announcers and assimilated their speech...James Earl Jones used it to teach himself to end his stuttering, and if you saw "The King's Speech", I can't imagine how tough it would be, being put in that position...

That's why I find that character they have on "Big Bang Theory" who speaks with a sort of lisp a little curious (who wrote that, and why?)...it would seem he could have overcome something like that without much problem. (especially since he is supposed to be a scientist) Most just somehow grow out of it..

Lisps are often looked down on, so some work to get rid of them. They aren't usually tied to intelligence.

The big bang theory is supposed to be a program mocking stereotypes, and I believe one IS lisping. With a lot of that stuff, I doubt there is any real reality to it.

Still, lisps and stuttering aren't dialects.

Steve

I don't see a problem with writing speech impediments into popular TV (not saying anyone else does, either). It simply reflects reality.

"That's why I find that character they have on "Big Bang Theory" who speaks with a sort of lisp a little curious (who wrote that, and why?)...it would seem he could have overcome something like that without much problem. (especially since he is supposed to be a scientist) Most just somehow grow out of it.. "

Why would being a scientist especially help to get you over a speech impediment? What's he supposed to do? Invent a smart-nano filter snake that worms it's way through his neurological speech centres to tap it on the head?

I thought that was a Massachusetts saying...

JFK once said: "Ich bin ein Berliner'' (I Am a 'Jelly Donut')

(but that was after they already sunk the 'Bismarck')

Strangely enough we were talking about this at a friends house earlier on this evening Dave. How the States has relatively very few different accents given the size of the country.

We were comparing it obviously to the UK where local dialects can literally change every few miles. So much so to the extent that some people won't be able to fully understand another British person talking at speed from just 5 miles away. Birmingham / Wolverhampton (Black Country) is one good example of this.

Of course, there are the main accents or dialects, you'll likely be most familiar with the Cockney accent in London.

And 2 hours north west of London is the UK's 2nd largest city Birmingham, aforementioned. Here the accent is like something you've never heard before. Very strange indeed. (Sorry Brummies).

Then 1 hour west of Birmingham you enter Wales, another accent altogether. Go immediately south from the south coast of Wales, no more than 15 miles as the crow flies over the Bristol Channel to north Devon and the accent is completely different again. Head west into Cornwall and it changes yet again.

Liverpool / Manchester are similarly very different. Newcastle Upon Tyne the same - North Shields and South Shields extremely different from one another.

A little further north Scotland, another accent again. Glasgow, Aberdeen, St. Petershead areas they even have to use English subtitles on the TV so the rest of the population can fully understand what's being said. It might very well be English but it sounds like double dutch to me. I'm sure they'd say the same about my Westcountry accent.

Back to London, drive an hour south and you hit the stockbroker belt in Surrey. As different as chalk and cheese comparing their accent to just a few miles away up in London.

There's literally hundreds if not thousands of different accents here in the UK each with their own local dialect.

One problem I kept on running into in the States was the pace of my communication. I literally talk at 90mph, some would say closer to a thousand mph. Words literally tripping over themselves as I shorten every syllable down to their most basic form. Everywhere I went nobody could understand a word I said, which I found extremely annoying.

Got to the point I was having to talk so slowly at times I might as well just have ground to a halt. Time and time again people would just look at me and go, "Huhhh?!" It used to drive bloody mental lol.

Fascinating subject. I love it. Excellent good timing too given the conversation earlier.

Top of the day to you Dave.


Mark Andrews

PS - Cornish accent (where I live)...