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From: goer@sophist.uucp (Richard Goerwitz)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.cog-eng,sci.psychology
Subject: Re: Regional accents (was: Spelling and Perceptual Mode)
Keywords: GB Shaw, orthography
Message-ID: <3193@tank.uchicago.edu>
Date: 12 May 89 04:34:41 GMT
References: <2763@puff.cs.wisc.edu> <60340@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
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Pryor-Louise@cs.yale.edu (Louise Pryor) writes:
>I doubt whether
>Britons and Americans will ever have the same accent, the vowel sounds
>are just too different on the whole.
>
>Louise Pryor

What's interesting to me is that, after just a night listening to
this or that British dialect, an American can pretty much understand
everything perfectly.  Actually, a night is being liberal.  In most
cases the adjustment takes no more than a few minutes.  You kinda
lock into their system.

What is it that facilitates this kind of rapid adjustment?  When you
look at the phonetics, the dialects are quite different.  I mean, if
you transcribe a few lines using a broad phonetic notation system, you
get something quite unlike any American dialect.

                                       -Richard L. Goerwitz
                                       goer@sophist.uchicago.edu
                                       rutgers!oddjob!gide!sophist!goer