Is American a dialect or an accent or a completely different language all together?
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Anonymous2007-11-26 5:35
Technically speaking, English people don't have an accent, everyone else who speaks English does.
Americans have since adopted there own spelling for words but its not a completely different language, so i guess that makes it a dialect
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Anonymous2007-11-26 7:00
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Anonymous2007-11-26 8:52
>>2
Technically speaking, you are retarded. Everyone else is more intelligent than you.
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Anonymous2007-11-30 11:15
Dialects don't exist.
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Anonymous2007-11-30 12:39
Americans don't notice they have an accent. They think they speak English "as it was meant to be speaken" and everyone else speaks bastardized versions of English.
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Anonymous2007-11-30 23:12
>>6
That's bullshit. Speaking AS an American, I can tell you that most of us have Anglophilia or British Envy. Sure, little kids might think that others "talk wrong," but holy shit, there isn't even one accent in the US, and all Americans know it.
British envy? Seriously? All I hear about it Americans taking the piss out of our accent, with the stereotypical 'Well I say old boy!' kind of attitude
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Anonymous2007-11-30 23:53
Americunts.
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Anonymous2007-12-01 0:45
Firstly, "American English" is not a dialect or an accent given how many different versions there are of those in the US, and, given its similarity to other versions (Singaporean, Australian, New Zealand English, ect).
The word "dialect" is a little out-dated in the world of contemporary linguistics give how grey the area between "accent" and "dialect" is. The term "language variation" is more commonly used. "American English", "Australian English", "Singaporean English", etc, are all variations of "Standard English", which itself is hard to define. Within these English variations, you have further regional variations, especially in the US (one of the best examples that can be used) more commonly known as Southern, Queens, Boston, New York, etc, accents. But they aren't really "accents" given that there are lexical variations (different words and phrases) attributed to those particular variations.
One of the more common ways to look at this varition is through the theory of a "speech community" (William Labov). This is the notion that stylistic differences in language are based on socioeconomic status, common interests and attitudes towards formality. It provides a good basis for the study of language variation, but is nevertheless flawed (as championed by later linguists) because prescribes language users into pidgeon holes rather than looks at language use as a construct for a model of language variation definition and not vice-versa.
Linguists today use the concept of "Community of practice", which is best used when describing the variations of American Engish (which, as mentioned, it itself a variation). Which is the notion that there are linguistic norms for certain contexts (communities where people talk a certain way) and that people change the way they speak (their "practice") as they move between them. Think about how you speak among your friends compared with how you speak in formal situations. These are two "communities of practice" and you speak differently within them.
The reason why American English is different to others is because their "communities of practice" combined are very different, as you can imagine, from Singapre, Australia, etc. And America has further "dialects" and "accents" because people are brought up in certain collective "comunities of practice" from birth that are different from the collective "communities of practice" as someone from, say, the other end of the country. (Then we're getting into first language aquisition, which is a whole different ball park).
tl:dr- No such thing as "dialect". American English is neither a "accent" or a "language". It is an English variation, and within that ther are further variations that change depending on context and upbringing. It's all one fuck-off HUEG grey area.
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Anonymous2007-12-01 0:51
>>1
America has different accents i mean if you talk to some one in north jersey they will speak differently then some one from south jersey then some one from west jersey...i believe new your city has more then one accent Dont mean to sound racist or anything here but im only refering to the anglo saxons in new your city just to prove my point.)
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Anonymous2007-12-01 0:57
>>12
To expand upon "accent", it is still a term that is relevent, because people with a certain accent "sound" like they're from New York, Queens, Boston, etc because when they talk in different "communities of practice" hey still sound like a person from those areas.
But saying American has an "accent" on the whole is pretty daft. That being said, as a foreinger, I think the most recognizably "Amcerican accent" is the mid-west one. There is still no such thing as an American "dialect" though, firstly because, as I said, there's too much variation throughout the country and secondly, it's a dated term in linguistics.
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Anonymous2007-12-02 19:37
>>13
When you say midwest, it's necessary to point out that what you are referring to is the "Standard American English" dialect/accent, what reporters used to use on TV and the radio back in the day. It's considered the most "American" of accents.
For example, I use primarily SAE, but when I return home to visit my parents I switch back into lolgaykilling Texan accent. But only a tiny bit.
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Anonymous2007-12-02 22:59
>>8
Is that why every one of our movies a non-American always has a British accent?
>>15
As an American, listening to a British accent for too long generally makes me want to tear my ears off. Some British accents anyway. Every so often I'll hear one I don't mind, and Scots sound nice.