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Penn State University attracts students from all over the country. These students bring along with them different customs, habits, and dialects. Even the people from a few hours away say words differently than what you may be accustomed to. My inspiration for this post came from a heated debate with a guy from the Philadelphia area. He was drinking a glass of “wooder” but I tried to explain to him that he was drinking “wahhter.” This got me thinking about dialects and their origins.
According to an article from Oxford English Dictionary, “…dialect is any variety of English that is marked off from others by distinctive linguistic features. Such a variety could be associated with a particular place or region or, rather more surprisingly, it might also be associated with a certain social group—male or female, young or old, and so on.” Dialects are not to be confused with accents. Dialects include a small range of different pronunciations for a smaller category of words including grammar and vocabulary native to that particular region. Whereas accents encompass the sounds alone of how words are said in the entire conversation. Andrew has an accent, but someone from Philadelphia has a dialect.
The article explains that it is impossible to classify a certain dialect as “correct” because each dialect has existed for countless years and extends to early history. The most distinguishable aspect of dialect is the regional vocabulary. For example, some areas in the United States drink soda, while others drink pop. Dialects form as a result of social factors and upbringing. The influence of family, friends, neighbors, education, etc. all play a part in the child’s cognitive reception of words and their meanings that form in the early developmental stages.
According to Smithsonian.com, a child starts to differentiate between words as early as 6 months old where he/she rehearses and processes the language for when he/she is capable of speaking. When the child does begin to speak, the language will mirror the sounds and twangs that the adults around have always spoken, thus forming its dialect from the very beginning. As a result of the vocal characteristics solidly forming so early, it is very difficult to adapt away from those forms. This is why even after all the time Andrew has spent in America, he still has his strong New Zealand accent. It’s most likely too late for his brain to rewire the way which it processes sounds and language.
Dialect extends beyond region. Depending on the upbringing, social class can play a huge role in the language even if the two different people being compared are from the same town. This also applies for age gaps–you don’t talk exactly the same as your grandfather. Even men and women speak differently, usually as a result of societal pressures.
In the end, there is no distinguishing the correct dialect, because everyone believes that the way they speak is the “normal” way to speak. Thus, the “wooder” vs. “wahhter” debate remains unsettled.
My thoughts: My favorite part about this concept is seeing how influence social science is. I think it’s important to remember that science goes beyond biology and chemistry, and simply observing human behavior is just as scientific. Also, it is interesting to see how the biology (example- the way infants interpret the sounds around them so strongly) influences the social science (example-how Philadelphians pronounce words) proving that everything is interconnected in our world.
Sources:
http://public.oed.com/aspects-of-english/english-in-use/english-dialect-study-an-overview/
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/accents-are-forever-35886605/?page=1
I love this post because I always have the debate with my friends from home on whether it’s “seerup” or “surup.” Personally I think it’s “surup” but almost all of my friends say “seerup,” so who actually knows. Also, my cousins from Wisconsin say “cuupon” instead of “coopon,” and I tease them about it all the time and they don’t understand why. Also, I never realized that there was a real difference between dialects and accents.
I found this really interesting map (http://aschmann.net/AmEng/) where it actually shows the North American Dialect patterns based on pronunciation. Turns out there are eight regions:
1. Canada
2. Northern New England
3. The North
4. Greater New York City
5. The Midland
6. The South
7. North Central
8. The West
Good post. I am a “wooder” drinker, so you caught my attention with the topic. I found a super informative article (http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/linguistics/speech.jsp) I was very interested to read that speech itself is equally mental and physical. Considering all of the sounds present in a human environment, it’s pretty cool that the brain is capable of picking up speech. Your explanation of the difference between dialect and language itself was very clear and helpful.
I loved reading this article! I have actually been having this conversation with my roommate and people on my floor! My roommate and I are from the Philadelphia area (40 min away) and most of the guys on our floor are from the Pittsburgh area. They have such different dialects than we do! It’s actually really fun to listen to the way they pronounce certain words. Several of the guys on our floor pronounce the word “water” like “wooter” and say the word “god” like “gawd”. But to them, this is their normal way of speaking. I think it is really interesting to see how different people pronounce words and why because of the variety of regions they come from. I liked how you differentiated between accents and dialect because many people get these two things mixed up. Great factual statistics! The link below discusses the major differences between accents and dialects.
http://www.differencebetween.info/difference-between-accent-and-dialect