I wish this audio clip were longer. A woman explains the sources of a handful of common Southern accents by slipping effortlessly in and out of their linguistic ancestors. She's really good at it.
The part about sounding like descendants of British speakers is interesting- I've heard it theorized that it may be that Southerners actually sound more like the British sounded a few hundred years ago- and it's the British that changed more than the South. Don't know if we can say who is correct, so I suppose it will always be speculation, as there aren't any recordings from hundreds of years ago.
Well, one way we can almost know is that words that used to rhyme in Shakespeare's time don't rhyme anymore. Sometimes puns stop working for this reason, which means that by finding the puns, we can figure out where the language has drifted.
Interesting video. At times the accent they were using sounded much like a kind of blended Scottish accent, and at times it did seem to resonate with aspects of Southern dialect, but each seems also distinct from each as well.
My question to those men would be- how do you know where a pun was intended or not if you don't know the original pronunciation? I suspect you'd get some instances of puns arising if you used other pronunciation rules, just by happenstance.
That's very interesting, Tex. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThe part about sounding like descendants of British speakers is interesting- I've heard it theorized that it may be that Southerners actually sound more like the British sounded a few hundred years ago- and it's the British that changed more than the South. Don't know if we can say who is correct, so I suppose it will always be speculation, as there aren't any recordings from hundreds of years ago.
ReplyDeleteWell, one way we can almost know is that words that used to rhyme in Shakespeare's time don't rhyme anymore. Sometimes puns stop working for this reason, which means that by finding the puns, we can figure out where the language has drifted.
ReplyDeleteHere's a video on the subject.
Interesting video. At times the accent they were using sounded much like a kind of blended Scottish accent, and at times it did seem to resonate with aspects of Southern dialect, but each seems also distinct from each as well.
ReplyDeleteMy question to those men would be- how do you know where a pun was intended or not if you don't know the original pronunciation? I suspect you'd get some instances of puns arising if you used other pronunciation rules, just by happenstance.