Comments on: Votes and Vowels: A Changing Accent Shows How Language Parallels Politics

By: ThinkStraight

ThinkStraight — Sat, 18 May 2013 02:04:00 +0000

Thanks, excellent job turning a perfectly benign conversation about linguistics into an asinine rant about politics. Not needed. Tool.

By: teopa

teopa — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 18:22:53 +0000

Deborah Brooks Says
“I’ve known several people who pronounce “st” like “sht”, all from working class backgrounds — one from Boston, one from Hartford, CT, and several from New Jersey. All but the one from Boston were from Italian backgrounds; the Bostonian was Anglo-American.”

Michelle Obama speaks like that, where do you suppose that came from? I respect the woman, but it drives me crazy when she talks about “shtrong women”.

By: David M

David M — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 11:22:35 +0000

In re: the original premise, this is nothing new. It explains why the Franks, a ‘germanic’ culture, came to speak the nasally variant we call French; and why parts of Spain have institutionalized a lisp (while other parts notably haven’t).

By: Raul

Raul — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 00:16:25 +0000

It’s pretty ironic looking back on this article, seeing NCVSers characterized as being more liberal, when the two guys running on the Republican ticket this year are both shifted, Romney having got it growing up in Michigan obviously. I think it’s just too sweeping a generalization to try to break this sort of thing down into conservative vs. liberal. There are many very conservatives areas in the Great Lakes, and many very liberal areas.

By: Tom Ledford

Tom Ledford — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 04:53:49 +0000

There is yet another vowel shift that seems to be unnoticed in this article. I call it the Northeastern Guttural Avoidance Shift. Generally, the vowel sounds that are “normally” said in the back of the throat are moving to the tip of the tongue. Therefore, “bet” is becoming indistinguishable from “bat.” The word “edge” sounds like “adge,” and the sound of “red” sounds like “rad.” These changes are especially noticeable in the female speakers on CNBC daytime television with the obvious exception of some of the foreign-born ones. It has become annoying enough that I have suggested that CNBC hire some speech coaches for their big-name on-air personalities. I suspect other networks have the same thing going on.

By: Ron S

Ron S — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:16:09 +0000

A few of you from the “Inland North” have commented that you don’t hear this vowel shift, but believe me: it’s there in plenty of people, especially younger white working class people. You can’t hear it if you’re used to it. It’s the same phenomenon that prevents Canadians from hearing themselves say “aboot.”

I’ve moved around a good bit, but I’ve never lived in the Inland North except for three years in my twenties when I lived in Cleveland. Even though to me it seemed like people in Cleveland were saying “labby” instead of “lobby” and “bed” instead of “bad,” by the end of those three years I had adopted some of the shift myself, and I had to work on getting rid of it.

By: Steven B

Steven B — Fri, 11 May 2012 02:06:26 +0000

I call BS, I’ve looked in to this supposed “vowel shift” for year’s now, and from talking and actually traveling between Toledo (NW Ohio) and Columbus (Central Ohio) it’s not happening at least not among white suburban people (which I hang around with,) I guess Labov wants something cool or memorable to put his name on, but this supposed accent change is not actually occurring at least to someone who actually lives in the effected area.

By: Dominick

Dominick — Wed, 02 May 2012 03:31:43 +0000

Having lived in the “inland north” area my whole life, the only people that I have ever heard that sound like that come from northern Minnesota. One wonders if Labov bothered to check where the geographic roots of his sample actually came from.

By: floodmouse

floodmouse — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 19:11:17 +0000

Childhood experience: People grow up with at least three ways of speaking. (1) The way your parents make you speak (certain forms of slang NOT ALLOWED). (2) The way you speak when you’re alone with friends (certain forms of slang HIGHLY ENCOURAGED). (3) The way your teachers make you speak, which is (confusingly) often not the same as the way your parents talk. Also, the two sets of grandparents may come from different recent immigrant groups, so you may have two ways to pronounce the same word within a single family: “warshcloth” or “washcloth.” All this doesn’t even touch all the different regional accents we hear on TV. I assume people assimilate bits and pieces of things they like from the media, regardless of region.

Evolving your own form of the language is an art form . . .

By: caro

caro — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:57:38 +0000

I didn’t think that there really was a strong regional accent in Rochester until I came back from college and heard cousins speaking and ads on the radio. Is there is a chameleon effect in accents? Because I’ve noticed especially young speakers (teens-20s) have different patterns of speech depending on the situation – relaxed more regional/racial/cultural accented speech around peers and something closer to “general american” when in more formal/professional situations. The lines seem to blur the older the speaker is. Or that’s my observation.

I don’t believe that regional accents are evaporating – I think it’s hard to judge accents on how the younger generations speak. Two of my uncles live in the Southwest (Albuquerque and El Paso) and they have picked up accents from that region while they both lived in the Inland North area until their twenties. Accents over time amongst people and even in one person change.