I have to agree with Tamara... And since I live less than an hour away from her, it should come as no surprise that my observations are similar to hers.
Interestingly, there are areas of our state where the language traditions are more similar to British English than American English. I was born and spent the first two years of my life in the Tidewater area of Virginia, which is precisely where the first settlers landed and where many who live there are descended from early settlers. Because I learned to talk while I lived there, I have a vestige accent that seems to come and go... The most tell-tale examples are that I say 'out, about, and around the house' with all of those 'ou's sounding like the 'o' in hose. On the other hand, most people in this part of the country pronounce 'ou's like "ow!" (the sound you make when you bump your toe!) Well, the farther west you go, the more the accents change. Communities were established by groups of settlers (later immigrants...), and their language and accent was obviously influenced by their heritage. Even within the state of Virginia we have many charming and very different accents. So it's not surprising to know that when I was learning the "rules" of language from my Tidewater mother, the "rules" were very similar to Brittish English (I've always been torn between saying dived and dove, with dived usually winning out where it has to do with water (dived into the water... something I did as a child) but dove for cover (a concept that I didn't have to think about as a child). My mother was a stickler for correct English... and we were corrected from the time we could speak. So it was ingrained in me, and I notice "deviations" from the Mother Language all the time. And while some differences are due to poor or absent education others are the result of a language tradition assumed by immigrants for whom English was not their first language. And because the US is such a melting pot, we have a colorful and interesting language. I have to add that while we've always been viewed as somewhat arrogant in that we don't routinely learn other languages, I've noticed that many other languages are creeping into our American English. "Our" language now contains words from Spanish, French, German, and Italian languages (and others as well...) which are unchanged from their originals, although we sometimes sound rediculous trying to pronounce them! I can envision that 100 years from now, our language will be a blend of languages with what we call "English" being archaic. Fascinating subject! Clay > > Some of my cleaning ladies (many over the years; none seem to settle > <g>) come up with irregular past tense forms which nobody taught me in > school, but which seem to be common knowledge "in the county"... I dare > say they're the future of the US-English, and y'all had better start > expaning y'all's irregular verbs table... :) > > ----- > Tamara P Duvall > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Lexington, Virginia, USA > Formerly of Warsaw, Poland > > To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: > unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
