The sound of American speech

[scarlettina]

Among the many random things I consider every now and then is how Americans talk. For example, when did business people adopt the Valley Girl habit of ending sentences as if they were questions? When did any trace of a rolled R leave our pronunciation? Stuff like that. (When did I start saying "stuff" as opposed to "things

Comments

[scarlettina]

Now you can sound pretty much however you want without any repercussions.

I'm not sure I agree. How one speaks does make an impression. There are still places in this country where if you speak with a thick New York or New Jersey accent people assume you're uneducated or you're a criminal of some kind. (Coming from New York, trust me, I know. And if you speak with a NY accents in some areas, people automatically assume you're Jewish whether you are or not, and that carries a whole other set of baggage. Having been accosted on the free, liberal streets of Seattle for being Jewish, I can speak to that as well.) I think we're just far less willing to say so out loud for fear of being called politically incorrect.

I also think there's a difference between how you speak and what you say, which your second paragraph conflates a little bit. Sure, politicians say terrible things about each other, but mostly they say it with a General American accent or occasionally, General American with a slight touch of their personal regional accent, but you can be sure that enough of that regional accent has been flattened out so that middle America will accept you no matter where you're from.

I couldn't agree more with your third paragraph, though, for sure.

[amheriksha]

In my third paragraph, I mean more word choice than accent. More and more public figures are using profanity, slang, etc to get their point across rather than using conventional speech. It just seems like it used to be more...subtle. Not necessarily more elegant, but it seems like the whole point of the political game was to call your opponent an ass without actually saying the exact words.

As for hearing NY accents and assuming the person is Jewish or hearing a New Jersey accent and assuming the person is uneducated, I'm not sure if that's so much a judgement on the accent itself so much as the stereotypes that have been heavily propagated by Hollywood connected to that accent. (And Jersey Shore.) My feeling is that word choice is degrading to simpler stuff, and that was mostly what I was replying about. (Seeing now that you meant accents instead, I apologize for missing the point.) :)

[scarlettina]

Re: your original third paragraph: I completely agree with your points on this. You're right when you say that "the whole point of the political game was to call your opponent an ass without actually saying the exact words." I'm always amused by the strained way in which a polician will refer to a colleague when the debate gets tough: "the gentleman from Missouri." But if you listen closely, what he's really saying is "that a**hole from Bumf*ck."
You also make a good point about how the media colors perception.

And no apologies are necessary for misunderstanding my original point. This is a valid related conversation; no question.