jtm@syteka.UUCP (Jim T. McCrae) (08/11/84)
Saying that the language patterns of the entire continental U.S. bear some one-to-one diversity relationship with those of England is a bit extreme, methinks. Those of you who were raised in the North or West and have spent some time in the South may have noticed the striking similarities between Southern pronunciation tendencies and those of the mother country. Consider that the North was deluged with European immigrants over the last two centuries while the South had predominately black African immigrants. The language of the demographically "average" Southerner of the past two hundred years has been less influenced by continental European language patterns than by the African language patterns, if we consider exposure alone. (The added influence of Northerners moving South cannot be overlooked.) The most interesting language group to be considered is the African-English dialect which has evolved. This dialect, or group of dialects, integrates two very different syntactical systems, with different rules on subject-verb relationships, tense, predicate action, etc. This dialect is gradually, or rapidly, being adopted into the "mainstream" American dialects (i.e. Johnny Carson TV English). All of this is my own conjecture and is in no way meant to indicate that I know what I'm talking about. Flames anyone? Jim McCrae - Sytek - Mountain View CA - ...!hplabs!sytek!jtm