Establishing Boundaries of Dialect – Where to draw the Line?
For our new topic (dialects), it is important that you know the difference between SLANG and DIALECT.
BUT – if it is regional, where does dialect begin, and where does it end? Is it measurable???
Peruse the following link to the research article about the “Mapping of Dialect Boundaries.” You can also access this document by opening the pdf link. Do selective reading – skim the 23 pages, and pick out the essentials!
PROMPT:
Focus on the question whether it is possible for lay people (not researchers) to establish “boundaries” for dialects – look at the people’s statements in the article: “we have more of a twang to our words,” “never noticed much difference,” “they speak more broken hillbilly slang,” “southern Ohio is like West Virginia but not as twangy,” “well their vocabulary is different,” “they have a different kind of drawl in their voice,” “they have their own way of saying things,” “they slur their words,” “I don’t quite get it… they just talk kind of strange,” etc…….
Could you distinguish certain areas around the place where you grew up or lived for a long time that speak a dialect different from your own? (Name them!) Do you know exactly where the demarcation line is, and what is it, an interstate?
When would you consider such boundaries to be true, so they can be made official? Is there a way at all to ascertain a border between regions where different dialects are spoken?
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11 comments:
Coming from New York I always hear, "well you don't have a New York accent," which correlates well with this article. Everyone thinks that if you are from New York you speak using a Long Island dialect. That isn't true because there is more to New York then just Long Island and New York City. For me, I would say that once you reach the New York State Thruway 87, which is an extension from Thruway 90 which leads into the city, you will see a different type of dialect. As you head further west to cities like syracuse, rochester, and buffalo, there is a very noticable differece in the way people speak. There is hardly any sign of a Long Island or New York City dialect in the western and central part of new york state. Therefore I would agree that you can distinguish dialect using boundries.
The dialect difference in boundaries is very noticeable being from Chicago and having family in Wisconsin. There are several terms and accents that are purely boundary specific, such as the lengthening of a's as a long vowel sound and terms like "hoser" found in Wisconsin. These sounds and words are not found in Chicago, which is a clear indicator that boundaries make up dialects.
It is interesting to think about the different types of accepts and dialects that you hear and where they start and stop. Its interest to see some of the exclusions as well. In my high school, you heard a few southern accent, and I'm from just south of Carbondale. I had a very close friend of mine who lives maybe 5 miles away from me, but he had a very strong southern accent. When I speak, there are some things I say that sound southern, but his never stopped. How can the accent affect someone in an area and not another? So maybe there aren't really any dialect boundaries.
I think the boundaries do exist but would be too difficult to "set" these boundaries. I'm from Champaign, which is 3 1/2 hours north of here and about 2 1/2 hours South of Chicago but I've told before that I sound like I have a Chicago dialect at times. I do think that certain areas have a dialect that can be hear there, however I don’t think that we could establish boundaries for these dialects. I do think that certain parts of the country and world have a distinct way of talking that is unique to that area. I don’t think we should put labels and try to determine boundaries for the way people talk; we all just need to be aware that in different parts of our world people talk differently. We just need to make ourselves aware so that if we go to these places we don’t get confused by the dialect.
I think that it is possible to establish boundaries of dialect, but it would in no way be exact. For instance, some people who grew up in Kentucky may not have a Kentucky accent if their parents are from another area. I could always distinguish when someone was from northern part of Illinois because of the different way they would pronounce the same words. I would never consider the boundaries to be true because no one speaks the exact same, and it is always changing.
You can set up tentative boundaries for dialect, but they will constantly fluctuate. I have never lived in a town or city where there was an identifiable dividing line between dialects. I grew up in DeKalb County in Northern Illinois and then moved to Olney in Southern Illinois. The difference in dialect was staggering. When family would come from up north to visit they couldn’t even go to drive through windows without uncontrollably laughing at the attendant’s dialect. They could not get used to it. However, when I moved further south to Carbondale, I find a mixed bag of dialects. I’m sure that there are many towns with only a couple of dialects, but a college town will always have a sampling from all over the country (even all over the world).
The dialect boundaries from Chicago is very different from my familie's dialect who lived in Mississippi, half of their life. People often ask me if I'm from Mississippi.Truth be told, I've never been to Mississippi and when people ask me if im from there, I just tell them yes. To me, the difference phrases that are used in Mississippi are very difference from the phrases used in Chicago. Like my mother often says "Where Bout?"When see says things like this, I get ready confused and dont know how to answer her. So I give her other words to use.There are other words that "Mississippians" use that Chicago people dont use or how they say it is different from Chicagoans. Like in Chicago, we say "hair, which is technically correct, but down south, they say "Harr" the air part of the word is not really pronounced.Because their are different words and pronounciations that are used in Mississippi and not Chicago, then that should show that their are boundaries.
I'm not sure how one would map dialect boundaries. When I was 10, I moved to a new town only an hour away from my old one. Once there, I was told that I had a "terrible southern accent", but I couldn't tell any difference! My boyfriend grew up in Champaign, and I can definitely hear a different speech pattern among him and his friends than the speech patterns my friends from around here have. I also have a good friend from northen Illinois (she lived there until 2001), and she has one of the strongest southern accents I have ever heard! Based on this, I don't know how one would break the state of Illinois up along dialect boundaries.
Dialect boundries can be loosely based on area dialects spoken but one cannot base how someone speaks accent wise on whether or not that person is from a particular state. My former husband was Canadian and after time I found myself mimicking his talk. I was using eh at the end of sentences which is very Canadian and given the fact that I was born in California and came to So Ill with my family eh behind my sentences seems silly now. It is I believe more about the people you are around and the dialects they use that influence your own style of speaking. Spend too much time in the south and you might end up with a twang. It's all relative.
The dialect difference in boundaries in sometimes unclear to me. I live in a small town about 30 minutes from St. Louis and every time I am in St. Louis, someone tells me that I have a really strong southern accent. I don't think I have a southern accent at all but some seem to think so. I have friends from Chicago and I think that they have a strong accent and I sometimes find myself talking like them.
I am usually able to tell the general region that someone is from based on their dialect. I have family that lives in MS and TN and I can't tell a difference between them like I with them and my family that lives in IL or MI. I like watching TV shows like Big Brother where they have different people from all over speaking in different dialects. My favorite would have to be New Orleans accents. They are very unique and distinquished
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