dialects & economics ----- Original Message ----- From: Devine, James To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 12:46 PM Subject: [PEN-L:27196] dialects & economics
Speech's Utter Dynamics (Los Angeles TIMES, June 24, 2002) Despite the sameness of U.S. media, regional dialects refuse to blend. Instead, the continent is a huge quilt of evolving pronunciation patterns. By MATTHEW BLAKESLEE, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-000044235jun24.s tory comment: the article above was very interesting, even in terms of economics. The article makes two major points: (1) contrary to most people's expectations, the various dialects of the English language in the United States are not going away (as suggested by very intensive research of areas outside the big cities). People expected that increased inter-communication (including national TV, etc.) would slowly make the difference between say, the Midwest dialect and "Southonics" disappear. This hasn't happened. In fact, though some local dialects are going away, the differences between major dialects are actually _intensifying_. (2) the major explanation presented for this phenomenon is that the dialects have an inner coherence, a structure. For example, different dialects treat the main vowels differently relative to each other (as in the major vowel shift that separates Chaucer from Shakespeare and continental Europe from England). In French it's not just that "i" is pronounced "ee" (unlike in English where the hard form spells its name), but all the other vowels are differently than in English. In England, they all shifted together, relative to French. This gives the languages a structural rigidity: you can't change one vowel's pronunciation without changing all of them. If the English speakers saw the light and changed their pronunciation of "i" to "ee," they'd have to change their pronunciation of "e," also. Similar structural rigidity can be seen in English dialects. ================= Blame the "path dependency" of brains. Old dogs, new tricks and all that. Ian
