Words Are Weapons, Too

yeahwriters:

jirasol:

it’s called AAVE, you [oh let’s censor this]

I hate how people here think that “proper general English” is the only way to speak English and all the others are considered “idiocy” like if language has anything to do with intelligence. I’m not even from the U.S. and I know this better than most of you.

Below is a list of all English dialects in North America:

American English - Standard American English is the general form

• Cultural
  • African-American Vernacular English (AAVE)
  • Chicano English
  • New York Latino English
  • Pennsylvania Dutch English
  • Yeshivish
  • Yinglish

• Regional
• New England English
  • Boston accent
  • Boston Brahmin accent
  • Hudson Valley English
  • Lake Dialect or Lake Talk
  • Vermont English
• Inland Northern American English (includes western and central upstate New York)
  • Northeast Pennsylvania English
• Mid-Atlantic dialects
  • Baltimore dialect
  • Philadelphia dialect
  • Pittsburgh English
  • New York dialect
  • New Jersey English dialects
• Inland Northern American English (Lower peninsula of Michigan, northern Ohio and Indiana, Chicago, part of eastern Wisconsin and upstate New York)
• North–Central American English (primarily Minnesota, but also most of Wisconsin, the Upper peninsula of Michigan, and parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa)
  • Yooper dialect (Upper Peninsula of Michigan and some neighboring areas)
• Midland American English
  • North Midlands English (thin swath from Nebraska to Ohio)
  • St. Louis
  • South Midland (thin swath from Oklahoma to Pennsylvania)
• Southern English
  • Appalachian English
  • Tidewater accent
  • Virginia Piedmont
  • Virginia Tidewater
    
    • Coastal Southeastern (Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia area)
    • Cajun English
    • Harkers Island English (North Carolina)
  • Ozark English
  • Southern Highland English
  • Gullah or Geechee
  • Texan
  • Yat dialect (New Orleans)
  • Ocracoke
• Western English
  • California English
  • Boontling
  • Pacific Northwest English
• Hawaiian Pidgin

Canada

Canadian English:

• Newfoundland English
• Maritime English
  • Cape Breton accent
  • Lunenburg English
• West–Central Canadian English
  • Northern Ontario English
  • Quebec English
  • Ottawa Valley Twang
  • Pacific Northwest English

Bermuda

Bermudian English

Native/American indigenous peoples

Native American/indigenous peoples of the Americas English dialects:

• Mojave English
• Isletan English
• Tsimshian English
• Lumbee English
• Tohono O’odham English
• Inupiaq English

From the New England accents Wiki:

Some speakers of the Western New England dialect—especially those from the region surrounding the major cities of Springfield, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut, along theConnecticut River—replace “t” with a glottal stop and replace “-ing” with “in’”. This would mean that those who do such would pronounce (for example) “sitting” as “sih-in’”, New Britain as “New Brih-nn”, and Clinton as “Clin-nn,” etc. T-glotallizing is found in other parts of the country as well, to varying degrees; however, it is prevalent in Southwestern New England.

I totally do this. I can’t say “mountain” or “kitten”; I say “mau-in” and “kih-en”. My parents always give me a hard time and it’s SO FUCKING ANNOYING. One time my stepmom told me that it made me sound less smart, which is ironic because I’m the most educated person in my entire extended family, and I wouldn’t think that a speech affect that makes you sound like you’re from Connecticut would dumb you down.

Seriously though, I met so many ultra-intelligent people with thick Southern accents when I was at UNC, and met so many idiots with perfect British accents when I lived in London. The accent=intelligence stereotype has totally been broken for me, which I’m quite thankful about.

Okay sorry /end rant.