Evidently, someone at Harvard did a dialect survey and the results are here.
A breakdown of specific states are here.
This is an interesting survey. There are a couple of things on the long list that I disagree with in regards to how I personally say things. However, this would be a good tool for writers to utilize if they are writing out of state characters.
Speaking of dialect, my sister/s were watching some reality TV show last night. I only saw glimpses of it on my way up and down the stairs, but I think (not positive) it was maybe that show that trades spouses.
Anyway, I kind of half noticed that they had traded a black woman and a white woman. And I kind of got the impression that the black family wasn't all that well off, and the white family was.
What got me was the white woman curled up on the couch in the black family's living room, acting like a total spoiled rotten bitch. "I want something to eat now," she whined as I made my way back up the stairs.
Okay, this is really how we want our kids to see our wonderful racial relations, no?
Another thing that got me was the fact that they had subtitles on when the black guy spoke (and I'm sorry if I'm not being politically correct here with the terms, notice I'm using white and black, not Caucasian and African-American.) Does that mean the TV producers (may they rot in hell for producing this garbage) didn't think the average American could understand a southern accent? Give me a break.
Oh, and he was saying something about how they couldn't afford to eat out whenever they wanted to, which is totally understandable, but evidently not understandable at all to the white woman. ("I want something to eat now," indeed.)
Just seeing those couple of bits really made me wonder how far we've sunk by popularizing this oozing garbage on TV. And it made me very glad that I don't watch TV at all. If I didn't watch movies, I wouldn't have one in my house.
I wish my sister/s wouldn't watch this crap.
A breakdown of specific states are here.
This is an interesting survey. There are a couple of things on the long list that I disagree with in regards to how I personally say things. However, this would be a good tool for writers to utilize if they are writing out of state characters.
Speaking of dialect, my sister/s were watching some reality TV show last night. I only saw glimpses of it on my way up and down the stairs, but I think (not positive) it was maybe that show that trades spouses.
Anyway, I kind of half noticed that they had traded a black woman and a white woman. And I kind of got the impression that the black family wasn't all that well off, and the white family was.
What got me was the white woman curled up on the couch in the black family's living room, acting like a total spoiled rotten bitch. "I want something to eat now," she whined as I made my way back up the stairs.
Okay, this is really how we want our kids to see our wonderful racial relations, no?
Another thing that got me was the fact that they had subtitles on when the black guy spoke (and I'm sorry if I'm not being politically correct here with the terms, notice I'm using white and black, not Caucasian and African-American.) Does that mean the TV producers (may they rot in hell for producing this garbage) didn't think the average American could understand a southern accent? Give me a break.
Oh, and he was saying something about how they couldn't afford to eat out whenever they wanted to, which is totally understandable, but evidently not understandable at all to the white woman. ("I want something to eat now," indeed.)
Just seeing those couple of bits really made me wonder how far we've sunk by popularizing this oozing garbage on TV. And it made me very glad that I don't watch TV at all. If I didn't watch movies, I wouldn't have one in my house.
I wish my sister/s wouldn't watch this crap.
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