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From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: London accent *not* 'degraded'!
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References: <3rno5b$qr$1@mhafc.production.compuserve.com> <3sjgjn$1jo8@usenetp1.news.prodigy.com> <dasoso.31r@midway.uchicago.edu> <3snshr$1mse@usenetw1.news.prodigy.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 1995 04:59:21 GMT
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In article <3snshr$1mse@usenetw1.news.prodigy.com>,
Kyle Gryphon <UJZA56B@prodigy.com> wrote:
>But are you considering major differences in accent as good reasons for
>calling a type of speech a dialect?  I would also count many of the types 
>
>you named if I were listing accents, but I am also interested in which 
>words are used.

The F&W calls them "regional speech areas", but they largely coin-
cide with major dialectal divisions.  The boundary between "North
Central" and "Central Midland," for example, coincides with the impor-
tant soda/pop isogloss.
  
>I also have seen NYC/NJ listed as separate (I forgot).  Actually, having 
>lived in New England and having been to NYC a few times, I've got to 
>admit I really don't detect any accent(ual?) difference between the 
>speech of certain 
>classes in New England and the majority of real New Yorkers.  There only 
>seems to be a difference in word usage, such as whether one drinks from a 
>"bubbler" or a "water fountain".  I once was told by a New Jersian that 
>only
>transplanted New Yorkers say things such as "New Joisy"

Yes, well, as interesting as such anecdotal evidence may be to you, it
hardly compares to the intensive work done by Pilch, Labov, et al.



-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
