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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13 comments:
I couldn't tell much difference in the dialects where I grew up. I can tell the Chicago draw of vowels, but not every single person that does that is from Chicago and not everyone from Chicago speaks like that. I don't think that anyone could officially set up boundaries for different dialects. Even in places that do have a more discreet dialect not everyone in that place is certain to speak that way.
I grew up in Central Illinois, so there weren't too many different dialects that I remembered. Most of my grandparents and great-grandparents grew up in Southern Illinois or Kentucky. I really noticed a difference in the way my grandpa talks and how my mom talks. I don't know if you can put a specific boundary around dialects though. While there are people in certain states that sound a lot different than anywhere else, I don't think that there is a place where you can draw a line and say that there is a distinct difference starting here. Moving from North to South it's a gradual dialect change.
Having lived in Southern Illinois all of my life, I have concluded that the dialect here is one big mix of dialects. In the United States, however, I do not think that one can draw boundary lines for dialects. I have just noticed in my travels that in the South, words are more drawn out and spoken more slowly. In the North, words are spoken more quickly with a little touch of a nasally voice.
I grew up in the St. Louis area, and people from Chicago tell me that I tend to pronounce my words more so than others. I don't think that I have a different dialect, but when I first came down to Carbondale, I could really notice people from Chicago rather than Southern IL. Some words just sound different coming from a person from Chicago. I think it depends on where you grew up and the people in your family. I would consider myself from southern IL, but I don’t sound like it. People assume that if you’re from southern IL then you should have a “country accent” but really it’s more in the rural areas that you will hear this. I don’t really know where the demarcation line is and I don’t think there really is that profound boundaries for different dialects.
I grew up in Rockford, IL (which is about 20 minutes from the Wisconsin border). It's a big city, so it isn't uncommon to hear different dialects from people who have lived there their entire lives. I can notice differences, but I have never been able to judge where someone is from based on their dialect. I think it would be nearly impossible to draw distinct boundaries. There are too many variables involved. People have parents from other parts of the county, children grow up around peers who talk differently from each other. I have had some people say I have a Chicago accent and I live more than an hour away from Chicago (not to mention I've never noticed that I have one). Dialects are just too complicated to set-up any sort of for sure boundaries.
I grew up in Southern Illionois and I didn't really think that people here have a distinct dialect, but when I started going to college I was told often that I have a southern twang. I can hear a difference in dialect when I talk to someone from Northern Illinois, so I don't think you can draw a line and say that people from a certain region or state have only one dialect.
I grew up in SO IL, but when I was 18, went into the Navy, then lived in Chicago, Peoria, then back here. I was told many times that I talked with a twang, and I can see people making a case for a line around Peoria, but it's all relative. With as much technology and opportunity to experience different dialects, the line, anywhere, gets a little blurry.
I don't think you could necessarily draw boundary lines to where
certain accents are. I think it would get a bit hard in areas of
high population. In more rural areas you might be able to draw
lines defining where different dialects are, but the lines would
be hard to draw in places such as New York. I think its funny how
you can pick up an accent. I moved to southern Illinois six years
ago from southern California, and when I went back there for the
first time a couple months ago all my friends said I had a
southern accent. I can see where I have picked up a few common
phrases, but I didnt think it was that bad. Ha ha.
I think that such boundaries are definable only when one is introduced to a NEW dialect. In Mount Vernon, the language seems "normal," but people from Northern Illinois disagree. I find myself noticing slight differences more here, at SIUC, where I know that people are going to be coming from many different areas. If I met these same people in Mount Vernon, I might not notice their dialects as readily.
Changes in dialect are gradual and overlap so much that drawing a line is all but impossible. At any point, a person living exactly where you would draw the line is going to have dialectical aspects of both sides in his or her speech. As for what dialects I hear frequently, I am much like most others in the blog. I'm from Southern Illinois, and I tend to hear northern accents in the people from Chicago.
I was born and raised in the south suburbs of Chicago so I cannot tell the dialects of the area because that is what I am use to. However, I can tell the difference in the way people from southern Illinois pronounce words. I do not think there can be a boundary placed on dialect because no one is either right nor wrong with the way they pronounce words its just different.
In my opinion you can not put a boundary on dialect, but you can differentiate between them. I think dialect also has to do more with culture or race. I've lived in St.Louis, MO all my life and many of the blacks speak the same way. For example, we do something called dragging the R sound; the word "here" would be pronounced as "hurr". I also realized, when I came to college, that blacks from Chicago do the opposite, they cut the R sound; the word "car" would be pronounced as "ca". On the other hand, the way blacks speak down South is totally different! Still in all you can not put a boundary on dialect, because everyone in that particular area may not speak the same way.
I don't know that I would say any sort of dialects in this small of an area could be made "official", but I do know that crossing the river to Kentucky made a huge difference in dialect not only noticeable to myself, but also to friends actually from Carbondale (which means it wasn't just me!). It also seems to me that people from the little village twelve miles away from my little village talk with more of a "souther accent", but maybe that was just the two people I knew from there ;)
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