Quote:
Originally Posted by cw1865
There was a good article on that and I can't find it. I read the 'Story of English' a while back which was really quite interesting and, if I recall, hypothesized that, as a result of standardization, mass literacy and a national media that the language was harmonizing resulting in less divergence in pronounciation.
|
Within the past few days caught part of a radio program on WHYY (Fresh Air?) wherein the author of a book on regional dialects in the US was interviewed, with her finding that such are still surviving quite well, even though many who use such are wholly unfamiliar with either either the origins or original meanings of the words and phrases in question; in some cases, the usage has shifted over great distances, with people in California now using what had originally been New England regionalisms! Ditto for usages which had originally been peculiar to the "Scotch Irish" who settled in Appalachia.