Accents
Why does anyone have an accent? Sounds like a stupid question, doesn't it? Sure, if you live in areas where you are isolated from the rest of the world, over time, your language will change along with how you pronounce words you have in common with other regions. The key word in that sentence is "isolated". If that assumption is true, then it makes sense that the less isolated a region is, the more alike (over time) it's language will be.
In the U.S., we've had radio for somewhere around eighty years, television around sixty years, audio recording for over a hundred years. Announcers (for the most part) have the same mid-western American sort of accent and everyone alive now (in the U.S.) has heard this style of speaking since they were children.
I'm sure I have an accent of some kind...I can't hear it, of course. However, I swear that there are loads of people that are cultivating barely intelligible accents as a way to maintain some sort of "identity". I've seen people that grew up in the same household where one has an accent and the other doesn't.
It's usually a news story that sets me off on this, sorry. The "man in the street" interviews and every witness to an event make me cringe when they speak. I've also seen it on shows like Jerry Springer (occupational hazard, unfortunately)...but those people are actors, let's be honest...or at least encouraged to emphasize their trashiness.
I guess you have to take the good with the bad though. American english is constantly changing. If people weren't so used to making up names for things, mis-pronouncing others and attempting to be cool by coming up with new slang phrases we wouldn't be as open to new ideas. We make up so many words a year that it spills over into other languages. As an example...what do they call a microchip in other languages? Try one of those online translators, see what you get. Most of the languages will come up with the same word...but I bet they've been cultivating their accents. I wonder what word other languages have for "bootylicious"....
In the U.S., we've had radio for somewhere around eighty years, television around sixty years, audio recording for over a hundred years. Announcers (for the most part) have the same mid-western American sort of accent and everyone alive now (in the U.S.) has heard this style of speaking since they were children.
I'm sure I have an accent of some kind...I can't hear it, of course. However, I swear that there are loads of people that are cultivating barely intelligible accents as a way to maintain some sort of "identity". I've seen people that grew up in the same household where one has an accent and the other doesn't.
It's usually a news story that sets me off on this, sorry. The "man in the street" interviews and every witness to an event make me cringe when they speak. I've also seen it on shows like Jerry Springer (occupational hazard, unfortunately)...but those people are actors, let's be honest...or at least encouraged to emphasize their trashiness.
I guess you have to take the good with the bad though. American english is constantly changing. If people weren't so used to making up names for things, mis-pronouncing others and attempting to be cool by coming up with new slang phrases we wouldn't be as open to new ideas. We make up so many words a year that it spills over into other languages. As an example...what do they call a microchip in other languages? Try one of those online translators, see what you get. Most of the languages will come up with the same word...but I bet they've been cultivating their accents. I wonder what word other languages have for "bootylicious"....
posted by itsjustme at 6:15 PM
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