US/North American linguistic diversity

[LadyStanley]

Interesting. Dialect coach and linguists "tour" the US "showing off" various (but not all) dialect variations with history on where they came from.

Click to read more...

 

[beowulf]

Weird that it says American accents where they do talk about Canada a lot. Maybe North American accents.

 

[TheGreenTBer]

Interesting videos.

I used to live in Miami and honestly it was hard for me to pinpoint any single significant English accent because the primary language of communication in the city is usually not English, and it can be more difficult to enjoy the most culturally rich experiences of the city (of which there are countless) without having some command of Spanish. The one thing I can say 100% confidently is that people in Miami can identify even the microscopically slightest hint of Mexican dialect, whether Spanish or English, from a mile away.

As for the Spanish (a language of which I used to be able to read semi-fluently but have never spoken well) when I was communicating I would very often chop the ends of the words; "como esta/s" became something almost more like "com est", and "gracias" became "gracia." I don't know if that was specifically a Cuban thing or not.

@PanthersPens62 am I off base here on any of this?

 

[PanthersPens62]

Interesting videos.

I used to live in Miami and honestly it was hard for me to pinpoint any single significant English accent because the primary language of communication in the city is usually not English, and it can be more difficult to enjoy the most culturally rich experiences of the city (of which there are countless) without having some command of Spanish. The one thing I can say 100% confidently is that people in Miami can identify even the microscopically slightest hint of Mexican dialect, whether Spanish or English, from a mile away.

As for the Spanish (a language of which I used to be able to read semi-fluently but have never spoken well) when I was communicating I would very often chop the ends of the words; "como esta/s" became something almost more like "com est", and "gracias" became "gracia." I don't know if that was specifically a Cuban thing or not.

@PanthersPens62 am I off base here on any of this?

I'm not sure if this is what you are referring to, but hopefully this video will clarify things a bit:

 

[beowulf]

Like in parts of Canada we have Frenglish.

 

[PanthersPens62]

And to add....as far as English goes, there is not discernable accent in Miami. Lots of transplants here so you can get a variety of different accents based on where families originated from. I, for example, spent the 1st 17 years of my life in Pittsburgh, so I may have arrived here with a slight "Pittsburgh accent" but It no longer exists.

 

[TheGreenTBer]

And to add....as far as English goes, there is not discernable accent in Miami. Lots of transplants here so you can get a variety of different accents based on where families originated from. I, for example, spent the 1st 17 years of my life in Pittsburgh, so I may have arrived here with a slight "Pittsburgh accent" but It no longer exists.

Is there a such thing as a slight Pittsburgh accent?

 

[HansonBro]

I'm in Toronto and talk to a girl in Louisiana. I always thought my English was pretty clean, but she thinks I have an accent. I obviously think she does too so it's kinda funny to us

 

[JMCx4]

When I was a youth, my family vacationed every summer in Wisconsin at a campground largely visited by people from Southern Wisconsin & Northern Illinois. The kids in my age group that I became friends with all thought my Missouri accent sounded "Southern." And that was BEFORE my adoption of the term "Y'all" - which I now find an amazingly versatile pronoun.

 

[Unholy Diver]

Is there a such thing as a slight Pittsburgh accent?

I don't know if you would call it slight or not but there is partial and full yinzer at least, mine comes and goes depending on the crowd and situation, then you have some people who are just pretty much full on stereotypes all the time

 

[TheGreenTBer]

I don't know if you would call it slight or not but there is partial and full yinzer at least, mine comes and goes depending on the crowd and situation, then you have some people who are just pretty much full on stereotypes all the time

LET'S GO DAHNTAHN

 

[tarheelhockey]

the term "Y'all" - which I now find an amazingly versatile pronoun.

I find it strange that standard English should insist on not having a plural second person, considering virtually everywhere in the English-speaking world there's some jerry-rigged way of solving the problem. Whether it be y'all, yous, ye, you-uns, "you guys", or whatever.

Sign my petition to make "y'all" standard English

 

[JMCx4]

I find it strange that standard English should insist on not having a plural second person, considering virtually everywhere in the English-speaking world there's some jerry-rigged way of solving the problem. Whether it be y'all, yous, ye, you-uns, "you guys", or whatever. ...

Or as they say in Western PA: "yinz." That one took me by surprise when The JMCs visited the Pittsburgh area late last month for the first time. I thought we'd stumbled on transplanted Georgians who crossbred with Allegheny hillbillies.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Or as they say in Western PA: "yinz." That one took me by surprise when The JMCs visited the Pittsburgh area late last month for the first time. I thought we'd stumbled on transplanted Georgians who crossbred with Allegheny hillbillies.

I mean… that’s kind of what Western PA actually is

 

[TheGreenTBer]

I mean… that’s kind of what Western PA actually is

Truth. Pennsyltucky.

 

[adsfan]

The state of Ohio (Ahia) has several accents.

People from Cleveland can sound like they are from the east coast. Think of Sheldon Leonard's NYC accent.

The Youngstown area has a Pittsburgh influence, but you didn't hear that from me!

People from the southern and southeastern part of the state sound more rural and southern. That is the part near West Virginia.

The Cincinnati area (in the southwest) has Germanic and southern accents. You hear people say "please" a lot "darlin". The mall in Florence, Kentucky, about 10 miles south of downtown Cincinnati, had a water tower that said Florence Yall on it. Cincinnati has a southern culture, like Louisville or Memphis. My brother says that Cincinnati is the place where the East, the South and the Midwest collide.

Dayton, just 50 miles north of Cincinnati, is less Germanic, so the southern accent comes through a little more in places. You hear some Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee accents due to migration.

Toledo has some Michigan influence. Some of the citizens sound like Gerald Ford, most don't.

Columbus, in the middle of the state, is more plain spoken, but also draws people from all over the state. That leads to a London-like mixture of accents.