The 'Claw' and Accents
I am very interested in language, its history, development, and permutations. Over on 'Claw of the Conciliator' Elliot has a good post on Accents. I think he is onto something important. The world of blogs will lead to developments in English, and possibly several other languages (e.g. Arabic among non-Arab Muslims, or modern Turkish of Turkey among Turkish countries). As for my comment - does anyone have an explanation?
posted by Clemens @ 4:57 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Well, there's a stereotype that some Canadians say "oot" rather than "out," or "aboot" rather than "about." But I've never met any who did! It might be a regional thing.
Yes - Virginians have somewhat the same stereotype. I think it must be more true of Canadians along the Eastern Seaboard. Back in Colonial times we probably had the same basic accent, and then Yankees developed their odd dialects in Boston, Maine and New York, separating the people who spoke good English in Virginia and Canada.
I've always imagined Canadians in your part of the woods speaking like Minnesotans, or Midwesterners in general. The Midwestern accent is the one early broadcasters picked as the one that was least noticable as an 'accent' to most Americans.
Interesting! I didn't know it was a conscious decision on their part.
Well, we don't sound like the people in "Fargo." We don't usually have that Scandavian flatness. But I imagine we sound like the average Midwesterner.
Yeah. I saw 'Fargo' here in the state I am in now, and nobody laughed, whereas I started laughing as soon as anyone in the movie opened their mouth. Especially the interview with the young prostitutes. Pure Minnesota.
As for American Broadcasting, it was a deliberate choice and many of the first broadcasters were from the Midwest: Edward R Marrow, Eric Severeid, even Johnny Carson.
Consider Dan Rather, the newscaster. When he was a local reporter in Texas in the 60s, he had a real Texas accent, which he lost as soon as he went up the ladder to the national news. Then later in the 80s and 90s, when regional accents became acceptable, that downhome twang began to come back in to his accent.
The BBC did much the same I believe.
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