Just read an interesting article from the Wisconsin State Journal about regional language nuances. It starts out with one of the things that bothers me most: peoples' inability to correctly pronounce Wisconsin. Hey Brent Musberger, it is not pronounced "WES-consin." There is no E in Wisconsin. Anyway, what I found interesting is that the study cited indicates that there is increasing diversity in regional dialects, which is almost the exact opposite of what I would expect. Given the mass homogenization of pop culture, you'd think we are all on our way to sounding like Nebraskans.
Without getting too deep into the logistics of the Northern Cities Shift, the basics seem to be that "cot" and "caught" are beginning to have the same pronunciation, to list just one example. So, it is possible that, as the Northern Cities Shift continues to creep into Wisconsin, people there may very well start giving Wisconsin the E sound. I doubt this, but stranger things have happened.
The article also mentions something called a "vowel merger," where vowel sounds are dropped. It mentions this happening in western counties, so I would assume this is happening here in Minnesota. The example cited is "Don" and "Dawn" being pronounced the same, like Don.
I have a theory that Wisconsin serves as a dividing line in dialects. I would be interested to see if that is correct. There are definitely some interesting differences in how Milwaukee natives speak in comparison to people in western Wisconsin, which is in the sphere of influence of the Twin Cities. Bud Selig is a good example of a subtle Milwaukee accent. Also, the Yooper accent seems to come into play quite a bit in northeastern Wisconsin, where I grew up. However, many people in that part of Wisconsin have "normal" Midwestern accents. Also, if you look at this map, you'll see a point right around the middle of the state. East of there, the word soda is used to describe stuff like Coca-Cola. West, pop is dominant.
If I find the time, I would like to explore this further. I also want to look more into this sort of thing in Minnesota. All I really know about Minnesota dialects is that there is some truth to the thick stereotypical lilting accents in the movie Fargo. Also, I think there are some similarities between speech patterns in the Iron Range and in Upper Michigan. Here in the Cities, things seem to be a little more conventionally Midwestern; although the Northern Cities Shift is apparently happening to a small extent up here. Overall, on the surface, I would think there is a lot more commonality in dialects here in Minnesota, given the Scandinavian influence that has gripped this state like few others. But, I am probably wrong, so it would be interesting to research.
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6 comments:
dont confuse dialects with accents.
we only have one dialect in this country, American English.
but many accents.
and some would even doubt(myself included) that AE is itself a dialect separate from UK english. we use the same grammar patterns and conjugations, but our pronounciations of this same proper language make it sound separate and distinct, but in reality it isnt.
in true form, dialects are offshoots of a primary language, that have developed their own rules and patterns of proper usage, and may include influences from a second primary as well.
for ex: my dad speaks two italian languages. both are dialects of latin, and one is recognised as 'official italian', but both developed separately and independently of each another with different influeneces from the mother latin.
sorry, that said...
i find this topic exciting.
i've often wondered how chicagoans, new yawkers,and joiseyites got to speaking the way they do.
the southern accent, i've read, has been traced back to the regionalisms of the fisrt southern settlers, who came largely from the english hinterlands. that speech pattern has died out in its homeland, but continues on in our south.
It is an interesting topic, gentlemen.
What you're saying is true, Gino. The influences especially in the regional variations you hear in the United States are largely tied to our ancestors. Wisconsin was largely settled in the 1840s and 1850s and the majority of the settlers were German or from the Low Countries, especially in the area where Stinger and I grew up (near Green Bay). I heard plenty of vestigial German in my grandparents' speech patterns. My maternal grandmother (b. 1895) would tell us "you dasn't go over there." Dasn't meant musn't, but it had a little more force coming from her. The speech in Wisconsin tends to have that Germanic touch, even now.
By contrast, Minnesota was largely settled 10-20 years later and the settlers were often Scandavian. Don't know if you've spent much time here if at all, Gino, but there are a lot of nordic looking people here, even today. The sing-songy lilt that Stinger mentioned that you hear in the movie Fargo is present, especially outstate.
To Gino's point, a good example of a dialect is Yiddish, which is simply an older form of German. Where Yiddish gets confusing is that sometimes it gets written down with the Hebrew alphabet.
But languages are often remarkably similar. Lately there's been an announcement running in the local paper from the Italian consulate concerning the upcoming parliamentary elections there. I don't speak a word of Italian, but I studied Spanish for a number of years and because both are Romance languages, I was able to read the announcement even though it was written entirely in Italian.
It's a great topic, Stinger. Bet we could talk about it for hours. Or at a minimum we could try to do something about Musberger. Digger Phelps does the same thing -- it's a Great Plains thing, I guess.
thanks, mark.
the migration patterns of peoples has always fascinated me.if i ever managed sobriety in college, i would have likey followed my history/ social studies interests into this area.
but dont pass on italian migration to wisconsin. paesans from dad's region settled heavily there(and chicago) recruited as labor to build the railroads. your dagos are mostly calabrese stock.
dad says if you speak calabrese to an italian, and vice versa, you can converse quite easily. but if you speak calabrese, it doesnt mean you can speak italian, and vice versa. they are very similar, yet structured differently.
and why your east coast dago street slang would be foriegn to an italian speaker. these slangs are rooted in the southern dialects(who were more similar to each other than to italian, my guess is they were the same language but spoken with regional differences) spoken by the early migrants, who generally didnt speak national italian (unless they learned it in school).
everybody spoke calabrese in dad's world. only the schooled spoke italian (which was actually the tuscano dialect that the king declared to be the national language when he unified the country. can you guess: tuscano was the king's native tongue, and was actually a minority tongue at the time).
sorry if i'm monopolising the thread.
i'll shut up now.
Gino - I fell into a trap I think many fall into, using dialect and accent interchangeably.
Also, to your point about Southerners, the term you may be looking for is Scots-Irish. I always find it interesting though that, in surveys about ancestry, southerners self-identify as American, not Scots-Irish. Some of my friends and I joke that they don't understand the question.
Anyway, I enjoy talking about nuances in speech patterns in different regions. I like to read about regional slang, so yeah, this is definitely something I could talk about for long periods of time.
Mark - As for Brent Musberger and Digger Phelps, they just gotta go. There's no two ways about it.
I have to say I was surprised to see 4 comments on this post. Sure, 3 of them were by one person, but hey, I'll take what I can get for now.
you just need to get noticed.
you got good posting going on here.
start networking, and the comments will come.
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