The article studies dialogues in the state of Ohio, an ideal place because of its various dialects. First, three different dialect maps using linguistic data are given for the Linguistic Atlas of the North Central States (LANCS): LAP, DARE, and TELSUR. Then the article describes a folk study done on 12 Ohio residents from four different cities. The first survey they were given asked the participants to label areas were people speak alike or differently across the North Central States. The second survey had the participants rate how different t
heir dialect was from twenty three different cities in and around Ohio. The results from the surveys showed great variation depending on what region the person was from. The outcome of the first survey proved that the participants could determine differences in dialects throughout the seven states. The second survey showed that people in the southern part of Ohio believed there to be less of a distinction between their dialect and those dialects in other cities than the participants in the northern and central regions of the state. The surveys also showed that more derogatory labels were assigned to the people in the south than other regions. Southern accents and dialects were even described as “unintelligible” and it was called a “rural phenomenon”. Most participants shared the idea that the Ohio River acted as a border for southern dialect.
Folk studies on dialect exclude many factors in deciding how accents should be mapped out. These ideas are constructed on ideas rather than actual facts.
17 comments:
This article is common knowledge among Linguists. Most dialects are divided by geographical locations. They wrote about the Ohio River being one such boundary, which it is. People who live in Indiana have a huge difference in dialect form those in Kentucky. The Kentucky dialect is a redneck-southern dialect, where as people from Indiana speak the mid-western normalized dialect. The DARE survey mentioned in the article was collected in the late 70s and 80s and is highly dated. The problem with it is that it takes at least one week to fill out and they are still compiling the data from it. Other than that this was a good summary and article.
I agree with anrome09. This is common knowledge. Dialect and slang terms vary greatly from place to place and region to region. I'm from Long Island, and my dialect is very different then students from Illinois and Missouri. Just the pronunciation of certain words vary greatly. This is a true fact the dates back to almost the time of b.c. when tribes were developing.
Although I agree that most people know that there are different dialects among regions, I believe it would be very difficult to map out these differences among the entire nation. I know I would have a very hard time! In my voice and movement class, my teacher told me that there were many, many different dialects spoken in the state of New York. I had no idea! I was just used to the typical "bronx" accent that I heard in the movies, that I didn't even know there were so many varieties. I think it's hard for a person to tell the difference among dialects in their own state. For instance,if I went to Georgia, I would very quickly recognize that their dialects were different than mine. However, if I went up to Chicago, I might not notice much of a difference. However, a friend of mine from Minnesota told me that people in So. IL sounded much different than people in Chicago!! Who knew??-Amanda
I like hearing different dialects. I think it's amazing how many different kinds of accents there are. I don't think it's fair that just because someone has a southern accent, they are labled as slow or dumb. The exercise we did in class was interesting because we could hear the accents and try to guess where they came from. I had no idea that so many different sounding accents could exist in the same state. I think that it would be hard to determine which geographical locations contained which accents and where the boundries would end.
I think that folk linguistics perceptions can be examples of the way people stereotype certain geographic regions and people. This article for instance talks about how some people feel that the only difference in dialects in Ohio occur in the southern region. The article also briefly mentions how some feel that the southern dialect is " unintelligeble." I feel that this is a common perception among people in the United States; also, it is interesting how that dialect is percieved as being less intelligent.
This article does nothing but ascribes a scholarly name to the idea the language varies among geographies. It is common knowledge that language varies depending on a person's geographical origin. The person makes this culturally accepted theme seem more scholarly by providing some research. Despite how the research was conducted and whether it was comprehensive or not, research allows for sholarly assumption which can not be disputed. Congradulations to the author for being able to say on a resume that he has a written work which is published and he possesses superficial research skills.
I believe most of this material is common knowledge. There many different dialects vary from region to region throughout the world.However, it would be difficult to map these dialects out.
I don't think it would be very easy to map out dialects, not only are there different dialects spoken in the same region sometimes (Amanda points out the different dialects in New York alone) but also, people from certain regions do not always speak the way other people around them do. I know people from Southern Illinois you would never guess had been born and raised here.
I was not shocked that the article stated that the survey done on the people in Ohio showed variations. I am used to people from different places even within the same state speaking differently. Also I thought it was interesting that they had negative thoughts on the Southern accents and dialects.
Dialect is usually dependent on an individual's region of origin. Everyone has a dialect, yet some are more distinctive then others. Some of these 'heavier' dialects, such as Southern, may cause a qualified person difficulty in a job search. There are a lot of different stereotypes that are associated to people of certain areas around the United States. Also, one's dialect does not reflect the level of education, knowledge, or understanding.
This was a very interesting article and the student summarized very well. I never really paid close attention to other people's dialect. I did notice that people towards the south side of the US had different accents compared to those from the north. I didn't realize that the dialects were different compared to different towns and cities in one state. It is interesting to see how dialects are can be separated by a geographical region like a river or something. I like to go visit my family down in Georgia and Florida because of their accents. My grandma lives in Minnesota and she has a very rich, distinct dialect when she talks. It is weird though how people can live in the some state and be racist towards one another just because of their dialect. The survey was very useful in demonstrating how dialect can divide a state. It is hard to believe that there are so many different varieties of dialects in one given place. Each direction of the state has its own dialect. The people from the north sound different than those from the south who in turn sound different from those to the east or west. There are so many different types of dialects and accents it is hard to tell them apart and some even sound very similar. Once you around people of a different dialect you tend to take on some of their accent, especially if you move to a new state. Eventually you everyone starts sounding the same.
I thought this article was interesting and I did not realize there were so many different dialects. As class had progressed with listening to the different dialects, I think it would be very difficult to map out all the dialects. Listening to the various dialects is interesting because it amazes me how I tend to have a southern dialect then someone from Chicago, even though both live in the same state.
When looking at the state of Illinois, I think that I am able to see the different dialects very easily because I know the way I speak and the way people from Chicago speak, you can just tell. However, when looking at different states, I agree with amurphy about just thinking there is one throughout a state, it is hard to tell the difference because we are not there. I think that it is really common for people throughout a state to make negative comments towards people from differen regions, so I was not surprised by such. I agree with the two talking about dialects being common knowledge, but I think that the number and variations of dialects change all the time, so being able to make generalizations about such would be really difficult.
I agree that is would be difficult to map out a specific line or region with a certain dialect. I do think there can be general lines or general areas where one dialect is going to be dominant, but this falls in with the fact that the different dialects are affected by geographical boundaries such as mountains or rivers. I also didnt notice the data was collected in the 70's and 80's, I would like to see a newer version and maybe compare the differences today. Would it be as easy to map out the dialects now as opposed to then with easy ability to overcome the geographical boundaries?
I think that lay people generally can notice boundaries in dialect and accent. I am usually pretty good at this myself. What throws a wrench into this is when people move away from their original homes. Not only does this change the accent boundaries, it also often changes the accent of the individual person.
Bryan Norbut
I thought this summary was interesting. I have noticed a huge difference between the way people talk in Southern Illinois compared the way people talk just forty five minutes away in Paducah, Kentucky. The river, of course, being the geographical boundary that seperates the two dialects. To me they sound more twangy and southern. Kentucky speakers tend to draw out their vowels longer and speak at a slower pace. So, I do think that lay people can recognize dialect boundary lines because I can recognize them.
While I agree that dialects are largely geographical, I do think it is much more difficult to guess where someone is from based on accent than a generalized dialect map. I typically find that people here in southern Illinois have a relatively normalized, Midwestern accent, though there is a bit of southern air to it. However, sometimes I run into a native Carbondalian who has the thickest southern accent you can imagine. Rivers are big contributors to the dialectical divides, but I feel it is more complex than that.
--bonnie
Post a Comment