Re: mostly language explanation

Can you understand each other all over the US? Are there some very
special dialects that are hard to understand?
***

yes, Gunnar -- there is a raging debate among linguists here about where
the "Standard American Dialect" is centered. That is, the locale where the
most understandable dialect is spoken by the "person on the street".  A few
years ago, that center was in the midwest, somewhere southwest of Chicago,
to the northern part of Illinois, up into Wisconsin, perhaps as far north
as Beloit, Wis.

The "standard American Dialect" is saught after for television commentators
and news reporters for television, and sometimes for radio, but that is 
fast disappearing as we get used to Rush Limbaugh, etc.

I don't know where the center is for the "Standard American Dialect" is in
the 1990's -- I suspect that everyone thinks that the center is right in
their very own kitchen and laundry room.

I can tell you that the folks in Virginia talk funny!! And the Canadian, 
well, that's real strange, eh?

The American dialect seems to level itself out on e-mail, doesn't it.  My 
dad's dialect from the area where he lived all his life was distinctive
and to keep him alive, I retain several of the flavorful pieces, very
deliberately, and sometimes they just sneak in there...  "ain't" is a favorite.

**

Iris, iris, iris, iris!!

Carolyn Schaffner
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