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Monthly Archives: January 2011
6 Accent Tips For Actors
A few days ago, I gave my list of the best American accents done by non-Americans. Which got me thinking: what makes actors succeed at dialects and what makes them fail? Below is a list of the six most important … Continue reading
Rick Aschmann’s Dialect Map
I have been studying dialects for years, and I have never come across anything as remarkable as Rick Aschmann’s American Dialect Map. For serious linguists, Aschmann’s research might seem wildly unscientific and cavalier. But for a hardcore dialect nerd like … Continue reading
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Posted in American English Tagged dialect maps Comments Off on Rick Aschmann’s Dialect Map
The Top 10 American Accents done by non-Americans
USA Today ran a piece yesterday listing the top five American accents done by British actors. While I am unfamiliar with the number one actor on the list, Jamie Bamber, I’m glad to see that Hugh Laurie and Idris Elba … Continue reading
Dialect vs. Accent
Many people ask me about the difference between a “dialect” and an “accent.” Really it’s pretty simple: An accent is the way that particular person or group of people sound. It’s the way somebody pronounces words, the musicality of their … Continue reading
5 Reasons Why Some Dialects are Unpopular
I try to promote acceptance of diversity in dialects and accents. In the real world, however, things are not so fair. Numerous dialects of English are stigmatized: many people, even educated people, harbor the belief that some accents are “uneducated,” … Continue reading
Posted in Miscellaneous Accents and Dialects Tagged Brummie, Cockney, New York Accent, stigmatized accents 2 Comments
Will Twitter Affect Dialects of English?
Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net A few weeks ago, AOL ran a timely article about the connection between Twitter and regional American dialects. The piece begins with some rather obvious points: that people in the American South tweet “y’all” more … Continue reading
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Accent reduction: do you need it?
A lot of people ask me if they should get “accent reduction,” the process in which a foreign-language speaker (or someone with a stigmatized accent) goes to a specialist to learn a more “standard” accent. Do you need accent reduction? … Continue reading
Check out our glossary page!
When discussing accents and dialects, we language geeks use some seriously confusing words. Many people find linguistics an incomprehensible subject because the vocabulary is so hard to understand. With this in mind, I have added a handy glossary page to … Continue reading
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