The Finger Lake Accent
Being home for the first time in 8 weeks, I've begun to pick back up on the regional dialect, the accent of the place I come from (despite having only left the house twice in the last two weeks for obvious, Coronavirus related reasons). I never really even noticed that my region had a peculiar accent, I never thought I sounded all that different from anyone on TV. When I went to college, I didn't think I sounded that weird either, however, I had many people tell me that I have a strange accent.
I decided to research whether or not linguists agree that my area is known for a unique accent or dialect and I can say conclusively that I did not come up with a conclusive answer to my question, but I will share with you what I did learn.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/f4z8ae/detailed_map_showing_accents_in_the_united_states/
First, I'd like to start with a map. The link for it is posted above. I found a lot of dialect maps, some on more reputable websites than reddit, but I believe this map is the best as it is very complicated but very detailed. Most other maps just didn't do most regions justice, lumping the US into 4 or 5 blobs. Even this map, however, while it does seperate upstate New York, where I live, from the rest of the map, it lumps in that region with Chicago, Cleveland, and most of Michigan too.
The reason behind this is because once upon a time, a hundred years ago now, upstate New York and the Easternmost states belonging to the Midwest all belonged to the Inland Northern American English dialect group. Geographically speaking, this area is essentially just much of the Northern Rust Belt, and it is where the "General American" dialect originates. I did more research on this group, and it seems like over the last hundred years there has been a divergence in how the people in this region speak, mostly due to the usage of vowels. There's a lot of linguistic jargon I just do not understand and I am not afraid to admit that. In the end, though, I did not feel comfortable lumping in my regional accent with every accent from Syracuse to Chicago.
I'm certain that my region, the Finger Lakes, has it's own unique accent. At American and at home I've met plenty of people from the Inland Northern region, people from as close as Syracuse, who just do not sound the same as I do. Although I could find just about no literature supporting this, I reached out to one of my high school English teachers who agreed that my town, and the other small towns of Central NY and the Finger Lakes have a particular accent. She commented further and said that it's characterized in general by an emphasis on vowels and dropping or deemphasizing consonants in the middle of words. I think the accent is hard to pin down, but that that almost encapsulates it. The accent itself sounds very rural, which is an accurate depiction of the people who speak it. If you are having a hard time understanding what I mean, the 1 minute video below shows the accent pretty well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbXlYhHaG1w
I decided to research whether or not linguists agree that my area is known for a unique accent or dialect and I can say conclusively that I did not come up with a conclusive answer to my question, but I will share with you what I did learn.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/f4z8ae/detailed_map_showing_accents_in_the_united_states/
First, I'd like to start with a map. The link for it is posted above. I found a lot of dialect maps, some on more reputable websites than reddit, but I believe this map is the best as it is very complicated but very detailed. Most other maps just didn't do most regions justice, lumping the US into 4 or 5 blobs. Even this map, however, while it does seperate upstate New York, where I live, from the rest of the map, it lumps in that region with Chicago, Cleveland, and most of Michigan too.
The reason behind this is because once upon a time, a hundred years ago now, upstate New York and the Easternmost states belonging to the Midwest all belonged to the Inland Northern American English dialect group. Geographically speaking, this area is essentially just much of the Northern Rust Belt, and it is where the "General American" dialect originates. I did more research on this group, and it seems like over the last hundred years there has been a divergence in how the people in this region speak, mostly due to the usage of vowels. There's a lot of linguistic jargon I just do not understand and I am not afraid to admit that. In the end, though, I did not feel comfortable lumping in my regional accent with every accent from Syracuse to Chicago.
I'm certain that my region, the Finger Lakes, has it's own unique accent. At American and at home I've met plenty of people from the Inland Northern region, people from as close as Syracuse, who just do not sound the same as I do. Although I could find just about no literature supporting this, I reached out to one of my high school English teachers who agreed that my town, and the other small towns of Central NY and the Finger Lakes have a particular accent. She commented further and said that it's characterized in general by an emphasis on vowels and dropping or deemphasizing consonants in the middle of words. I think the accent is hard to pin down, but that that almost encapsulates it. The accent itself sounds very rural, which is an accurate depiction of the people who speak it. If you are having a hard time understanding what I mean, the 1 minute video below shows the accent pretty well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbXlYhHaG1w
Fascinating observation and exploration of your local accent.
ReplyDeletethe last link is a clear audio example - interesting video angle choice, though.
ReplyDelete