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From: hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.cog-eng,sci.psychology
Subject: Re: Regional accents (was: Spelling and Perceptual Mode)
Keywords: GB Shaw, orthography
Message-ID: <4430@ttidca.TTI.COM>
Date: 15 May 89 18:14:10 GMT
References: <2763@puff.cs.wisc.edu> <60340@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Reply-To: hollombe@ttidcb.tti.com (The Polymath)
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Organization: The Cat Factory
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In article <60340@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> Pryor-Louise@cs.yale.edu (Louise Pryor) writes:
}In article <2763@puff.cs.wisc.edu>, brian@cat50.CS.WISC.EDU (Brian Miller) writes:
}>    Regional dialects are rapidly evaporating as mass communication becomes
}> an integral part of modern society. 
}
}This is just not true. It is still impossible to talk about *the*
}British accent, let alone say that British and American accents are
}similar.  Just listen to someone from Glasgow, or Birmingham, or
}Cornwall, or North Wales, or Norwich, or South London or...  And
}that's just in one small island! ....

True, but consider the situation before the advent of mass communication:
That "... one small island ..." used to have over 150 _mutually
incomprehensible_ dialects.  Before radio and the BBC you had to learn a
different language just to visit the next shire.

These days I occasionally have to translate an obscure slang term when my
Cockney friends come to visit (an extreme case).  However, the residents
of the British Isles have little problem understanding each others' spoken
English and the major differences are _accents_ not dialects.  While it's
certainly true that not everyone there speaks "BBC Standard English", it's
equally true that everyone there understands it and speaks so that others
can understand them.

-- 
The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, hollombe@ttidca.tti.com)  Illegitimati Nil
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