Aspects Of Southern American English

“Authority and American Usage,” an interesting essay written by the brilliant and quick-witted David Foster Wallace, presents an argument on different ways of understanding the ever-changing American usage in the English language. Keeping up with the English language in America is like chasing your new, untrained puppy down the street. Tiring and basically impossible to get a hold of. Over the past centuries, the English language has evolved so much, that if you took a person from the 13th century and threw them in the middle of New York City in 2013, it would be as if two different languages were being spoken.

What is unique about the southern culture? The southern culture is unlike any other, it possesses a very diverse group with many different, ethnic communities, and religions. While still binding them all together with one common thread, their heritage. Even with all the differences, southerners embrace each other, reaching across the lines of color, religion, or social standing. Going the extra mile to help someone in need, even if they aren’t family, or a close friend.

Talking Black In America addresses how advanced, unique, and culturally important African American English is (Hutcheson and Cullinan, 2017).

Using dialect in society is natural and people can often not control how they sound. When that same person writes however they are expected to drop their dialect and only use proper english. Vershawn Ashanti Young discusses this topic in his article “Should Writer’s Use They Own English?”. Young has several good points including that their accent comes through their writing and that “code meshing” can be effective in a person's’ writing. On the contrary, I agree more with the fact that we need a “universal” way of speaking in America, because of the fact that it is harder to learn several “languages” as a child and it would be almost impossible for people from other countries to learn all the slang if we don't have one set way of speaking.

In the 1930’s there was a lot of racial tensions and expectations for southern culture. Things are different now than they were back then like the culture, but especially gender roles in the south.

People in “American Tongues” shared a very present and negative opinion about different accents present in the United States. With regards to southern accents, people saw this accent as being one of “hillbillies” and the “worst accent.” I feel like this is a view that is still seen today and it is one I grew seeing on TV. For the New York/Boston accent, the speakers were seen as having “nasal problems” and also as being the “worst” accent. I have not had much exposure to this accent or the views still associated with it, but I’m sure that these opinions continue in the present. As for other accents shown in the film, such as the “Dutchified”

There are only a few reasons why these attitudes have developed, but are all very strong. Fear is the broadest reason and is the foundation for most of the southern traditions. The "big brother" complex, that the South has with

Being a native New Yorker from Manhattan myself, I have always wondered why I never picked up this habit of misuse (in addition to many others). It can probably be attributed to the fact that I moved to Staten Island at the age of six and went directly into the first grade. I never went to preschool or kindergarten and already knew how to actually read on the first day of school (my mom taught me herself). My beloved friends, with whom I grew up with all speak with a “Brooklyn accent” and rip the English language apart on a constant basis, including using the term “youse” instead of you as a plural or you all. We all went to the same school, had the same classes and teachers, yet I speak much differently when it comes to grammar, but not the accent. You can tell I am from New York immediately if I ask for a “glass of waader” or a “cup of cawffee”.

Everyone has various styles of speaking and various ranges of vocabulary that they utilize depending upon with whom they speak. This concept, known as code switching, portrays an integral part of our lives in today’s society. The fact that different groups of people speak in different ways necessitates the use of code switching. One would not speak to a group of high school students in the manner that one would speak to a scholar, or speak to a prison inmate in the same regard that one would speak with the President of the United States. Speaking in standard American English and then in African American Vernacular English (AAVE), or Ebonics, portrays the most prominent use of code

There are pockets of North Carolina which hold on to peculiarities of English speech. According to (Burke, 1971, pp. 289-300) Ocracoke is one such pocket where dialect and language still contain English influenced speech. Part of the reason this holds true is that Ocracoke, as a barrier island remains isolated from the rest of the North Carolina and has held onto specific turns of phrase and pronunciation. For example, the words abreast (to the side of) comforter (for quilt) squall (for storm) curtain (in place of blind or roller shade) and whicker (the sound a horse makes.)

Stranded from worries, yet surrounded by inspiring stories and diverse culture. Great Southern Land manipulates the audience through various language techniques used perspicaciously in order to assure positive light on Australia’s perception in the listener’s mind making it a definite for Australian advertising. What are these features you many ask? The first technique seen as a vital part to this manipulation is repetition of the noun groups “Great Southern Land” and “standing at the limit of an endless ocean. groups these are used to reinforce and emphasize the point at stake. “Great Southern land is repetitioned in order to reinforce the standing of great in the listeners mind therefore making them remember Australia as great, this is

United States of America, small in history but large in diversity continues to face new challenges with language as time continues to turn. In the documentary “Do You Speak American?” Robert MacNeil analyzes the English language and reveals many dialects that culturally defines us. Regional dialect is one of the many strongholds of all cultures and now it has reached its’ zenith and today it is slowly declining because it does not possess the human nature of advancement. Optimistically, it allows people to learn how to cooperate with each other. In order to advance and adopt a person has to change; I believe that the acceptance of cultural adaptations, diversity, and industrialization can prove that the decline of speech does not cause a

The United States of America is one of the world’s most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations. Even though there is not an official national language, most Americans speak Standard American English (SAE). However, the most prevalent native English vernacular dialect in the United States is African American Vernacular English (AAVE). According to Sharon Vaughn, AAVE is “a dialect used by some African Americans” (110). In order to examine AAVE, one must explore the origins, grammatical features, and prominent resolutions, which created a precedent for educating students that speak dialects other than Standard American English.

African American English is diverging from Standard American English. As shown in Do You Speak American (2005), AAE originates from the time of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. English was introduced to trade ports in Africa by colonialists, resulting in the creation of pidgin - a mixture of English and African languages that is still in use today. More recently, African Americans who have moved from the South to the North have been more segregated, creating greater divergence between AAE and SAE. As many African Americans maintain ties to the South, such as continued contact with friends or family in the south, similarities between AAE and southern dialects remain. However, each group have selected features that are important, such as maintaining ‘r’ in the North or keeping certain features as a way of preserving history, resulting in different dialect patterns between the North and the South to develop.

African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is the variety previously known as Black English Vernacular or Vernacular Black English by sociolinguists, and commonly called Ebonics outside the academic community. However, some characteristics of AAVE are seemingly unique in its structure. It also includes a number of standard and nonstandard English varieties are spoken by the US and the Caribbean people. AAVE has been the core of many public debates and also the analysis of this variety has encouraged and sustained debates amongst sociolinguists.  Some speakers may use some special aspects of pronunciation and vocabulary. Nevertheless, the grammatical features are not connected with the variety. Several sociolinguists would reserve the term AAVE for varieties which are marked by the existence of specific distinctive grammatical features and some of them are discussed below. The history of AAVE and what language varieties it is related to are also a matter of argument. Some scholars confirm that AAVE developed out a connection between speakers of West African languages and speakers of vernacular English varieties. According to such an opinion, West Africans learnt English on plantations in the southern Coastal States from very few native speakers. Some say that this led to the development of a rudimentary pidgin, a very simple language which has been extended through a process of colorization later.