.
She writes: Dialectical shifts, like sands on the Outer Banks, mark the sounds of a time and a place, that may no longer exist in real time.
thanks to - Mr. Cruikshank and his Georgian cohorts for illustrating this bit.
.
a high school English teacher brought this to my attention on facebook this weekend after participating in a dialect study.
She writes: Dialectical shifts, like sands on the Outer Banks, mark the sounds of a time and a place, that may no longer exist in real time.
Being able to 'tune' in like this to a
region is most entertaining...at least to some of us nerdy wordy
syntactical geeks! PB (in case she wishes to remain anon)
though I never took an English class from her, (sad)
I did trod the boards with her in our theatre group.
would she be scandalized by my lack of capital LETTERS,
odd use of punctuation?
I don't think so
she is a wonderful writer-and celebrant of creativity!...!!!
North American English Dialects, Based on Pronunciation Patterns
where do you fall?
Me?
somewhere between North Carolina & Virginia.
take aways (sp) from this story:
How do you talk?
Facebook can render useful and thoughtful information
I was a thespian in high school-playing the roles of Aunt Eller in Oklahoma! and Eliza Dolittle in Pygmalion.
thanks to - Mr. Cruikshank and his Georgian cohorts for illustrating this bit.
.
Dialects have always held an interest since "My Fair Lady", which I enjoyed long before I read Mr. Shaw. I am a native of Louisiana and there are many dialects and terms we use that are quite unique...colloquialisms. I imagine other areas of the country are the same. The map you have posted, while interesting could be made even more specific. I know people from Arkansas and Texas and while I can understand them, our dialects are not alike.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post. Thank you!
I like this, being multi-lingual I love being able to locate a specific dialect or pronunciation. I personally have a rather unidentifiable pronunciation-- not having been raised in an English speaking country. But of course, I still say "ya'll" as a hangover from four years in Durham.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely and categorically believe in you as Eliza.
ReplyDeleteThis is just about the best-bred part for a female on the English stage before - surely - the heroines of the golden age of American theatre, 1947-70. Now that I think of it, I can see Wendy Hiller's drenching in the bathtub in Asquith's movie of the great play - is there a woman who would not submerge for Ashley Wilkes? - as that restoration of her sensibilities, more or less as Higgins predicted. But what had water wrought, to which he had been obtuse, all those pedantic years?
In many ways, this seems a posting you have been circumventing for a long time. If I am right, it is all the more poignantly concentrated in its brevity.
This was wonderful, Gaye! Thank you. Of course that was said in my northern New England accent!
ReplyDelete