Do you have an accent? The answer is undoubtedly YES! Language is constantly evolving and can become a distinct identifier of where you live, where you’re from or both.
Attending school in New England and being from different regions of the US, Katie and Emily have always been fascinated with the way people pronounce words, the words they choose and how it represents where they come from. How did the regions of the United States get such distinct accents and dialects? Is it a firefly or a lightning bug? Do “cot” and “caught” sound the same to you? Enjoy Katie and Emily’s Midland and Northern American accents in this episode while they discuss what we say and why we say it that way.
What is the difference between a dialect and an accent?
What are some of the regional accents and dialects found in the US?
How do accents form?
What dialects and accents exist in the US today?
What are some of the well known shifts in pronunciation that are represented in the US?
What are some common dialectical differences between regions in the US?
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180207-how-americans-preserved-british-english
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/resource-library-evolution-language/
https://people.howstuffworks.com/how-accents-develop-language.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midland_American_English
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20180206-the-tiny-us-island-with-a-british-accent
https://www.vox.com/2014/11/17/7082317/language-maps-charts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midland_American_English
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cot%E2%80%93caught_merger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_Northern_American_English
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_American_English
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