I wanted to introduce another recurring post I'm planning, called "Teachable Moments." I love teaching 18 to twenty-somethings, because they are old enough to ask the real questions. I hear little kids do this took, since they don't have the internal censor/sensor yet, but I feel that after you leave home for the first time as an "Adult," for a little bit of time the censor/sensor shorts out, too. I love this. And I love answering the questions, since they often change the nature of my student-teacher relationship to learner-mentor, which I think is vastly more productive (and I end up learning just as much in the process!).
A current student in a ENG 102 (second-semester freshman comp. course), who happens to be an international student, AND happens to be taking my class via the Internet from Jordan (oh, how I love technology!!), asked the following:
Today, me and my Jordanian co-worker were talking about dialects and accents and he has asked me the following (while trying copy my American accent, haha): "When the Americans who were originally British came to America along with Pres. Washington, they spoke English with a British accent of course. How then did the American accent come to be? And how did you (talking to me--meaning Americans) get used to it?" Now as an American I'm supposed to know this lol. Sadly, I don't. I wanted to give him a good answer, so please give me your thoughts if you can and want.
I thought I'd try to find an academic article from the library (but the ones I found were so entrenched and overwrought with detail), then looked around on Google for awhile. I stumbled across some class notes from an Intro to Linguistics class that fit the bill perfectly. I also sent the following response:
This site seems to be a pretty good description of the reasons for American dialects and differences in Brit. and Amer. English. Mainly the thing to remember is that the first Americans did have British accents, but pilgrims and immigrants from different parts of Britain, so brought slightly different accents. All languages always change over time, but since their was an Atlantic ocean between the 2 countries, they changed in different ways. Also there were Native American influences here, as well as immigrants from other non-English speaking nations, who brought other words that American English "swallowed."
I love the study of dialects since I come from the South, northeast Tennessee, to be exact, so I heard both "southern coastal" and the "Appalachian" dialects mentioned. In fact, much of the slang is common to me, as in I might actually use it in conversation. I don't have the "accent" per se, but I know the dialect. Arizona is pretty bland, as it's newer as a state and never got the same type of influx of European immigrants, but the Spanish influence will change things in 150 years, 200 years, eventually perhaps creating a Spanglish language like Creole, which the site mentions is French/English. It won't be a joke language, it'll be far more important and you won't be anybody if you don't speak that hybrid language (like a form of bilingualism but the best words for both languages in one single language, no repeats).
I ask for his thoughts and I'll ask for all y'all's responses as well (dialectal variation intended.)
Today, me and my Jordanian co-worker were talking about dialects and accents and he has asked me the following (while trying copy my American accent, haha): "When the Americans who were originally British came to America along with Pres. Washington, they spoke English with a British accent of course. How then did the American accent come to be? And how did you (talking to me--meaning Americans) get used to it?" Now as an American I'm supposed to know this lol. Sadly, I don't. I wanted to give him a good answer, so please give me your thoughts if you can and want.
I thought I'd try to find an academic article from the library (but the ones I found were so entrenched and overwrought with detail), then looked around on Google for awhile. I stumbled across some class notes from an Intro to Linguistics class that fit the bill perfectly. I also sent the following response:
This site seems to be a pretty good description of the reasons for American dialects and differences in Brit. and Amer. English. Mainly the thing to remember is that the first Americans did have British accents, but pilgrims and immigrants from different parts of Britain, so brought slightly different accents. All languages always change over time, but since their was an Atlantic ocean between the 2 countries, they changed in different ways. Also there were Native American influences here, as well as immigrants from other non-English speaking nations, who brought other words that American English "swallowed."
I love the study of dialects since I come from the South, northeast Tennessee, to be exact, so I heard both "southern coastal" and the "Appalachian" dialects mentioned. In fact, much of the slang is common to me, as in I might actually use it in conversation. I don't have the "accent" per se, but I know the dialect. Arizona is pretty bland, as it's newer as a state and never got the same type of influx of European immigrants, but the Spanish influence will change things in 150 years, 200 years, eventually perhaps creating a Spanglish language like Creole, which the site mentions is French/English. It won't be a joke language, it'll be far more important and you won't be anybody if you don't speak that hybrid language (like a form of bilingualism but the best words for both languages in one single language, no repeats).
I ask for his thoughts and I'll ask for all y'all's responses as well (dialectal variation intended.)
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