Dialectology

I am not so good at recognizing the finer details of regional accents, but I find it fascinating. I absolutely loved the PBS series The Story of English. I didn't become a linguist because although I think it's fun and interesting, linguists need to be patient and precise, and those are not my strong points.

Since I didn't grow up in any one place, and heard many accents during my life, I never had the local accent. When we lived in El Paso, until I was five, I my mother would get exasperated when we would say "shigger" for sugar, and how we were made to marvel when Mrs. Heygood asked us "ha minny pinnies in a dahm? Tin!" In Japan, of course, the folks in the army who spoke English were from all over, and no one accent dominated. In San Francisco, where I went to Jr High and High School, a lot of people I knew spoke English accents from all over the world, not just all over the country. I do remember being told by someone who was actually born in SF that it was to be pronounced 'Samp'ncisco', not San Francico.

When I moved from California to Minnesota, I discovered that I HAD an accent because people would squint and say, "you're not from around here, are ya?" I know I've picked up some Minnesota sounds over the years, of the Praire Home companion variety. When I first took my baby girl to Spain, a graduate student from Madrid said, "Don't let her pick up the accent!" I had no idea what he was talking about, but when I asked around, I discovered that the regional accent of Aragón is sometimes used on TV in Spain to represent characters who are "country bumpkins." There IS a strong regional accent, sometimes affectionately called "maño" that I cannot imitate at all. (OJO: para mis lectores aragoneses, distingo entre el aragonés como lengua y el variante del castellanos que se llama "maño". Este es un tema que merece su propio post!)

Ron Sullivan over at Toad in the Hole posted a great clip where some out-of-towners are learning the finer points of the Scranton,PA speech patterns. As a language instructor, I truly appreciate the scenes of classroom dynamic.