A Little Cultural Learning

But not the culture I'm used to learning about.

It's been cold and dreary here in the land of the Turk the past couple days. It has made running impossible (well, you know) and even going outside is an uncomfortable chore. So this morning I had a nice conversation with Lane Marie and one thing led to another and here is where I found myself.

The Wikipedia article on Southern American English.
The journey to this site is almost, if not as, interesting as what I learned in it. First, I was just running through my normal website checks for daily news. I always check the front page of Yahoo and found this interesting article about an asteroid that will be coming "close" to Earth. Granted, close in astronomical terms is, well, astronomical.

Next, I see a link at the bottom of the page to a link on the Black Death. Thank goodness a plague that killed upwards of 50% of the population of Europe didn't do it "indiscriminately."

That article led me to wonder what the Black Death really was. Was it the bubonic plague? Was it from rat fleas? Was it something totally different? Can't say that I had really invested it. So, off to Wikipedia we go. I know it's not "official" and anyone can change the data on it and yadda yadda. It's a poor man's encyclopedia and I love it.

Whilst perusing the article on the Black Death, I learned some very interesting facts. First of all, no one really knows for sure what the Black Death was. It was bad, everyone agrees on that. But the list of effects is really what caught my eye. Among others, some of the longest lasting effects, though rather indirectly, of the Black Death are the rise of capitalism, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Great Vowel Shift. Having a pretty good idea about the first three, I followed the link to see what this Great Vowel Shift was all about.

Apparently during the same time period that the Black Death was ravaging the world, a major shift in how English speakers pronounced certain vowels began to occur. The article claims that it was helped along, in part, by the Black Death. While I am not an expert in the phonetic alphabet, I still found the article interesting. I also saw a word that I have heard a few times in my short English teaching career, but wasn't entirely sure on it's definition. So next, I read about diphthongs (and yes, this is a family friendly blog).

Again, an interesting read. It's nice to pick up some of the technical lingo from time to time. These are principles that we all use in our everyday speech, but we just don't know what the professionals call them. On the diphthong page, I saw another term that caught my attention. Under the examples of English diphthongs was the phrase Rhotic dialects. Using the examples they gave of how a speaker of a Rhotic dialect would say certain words, I wondered if I may be one myself. Come to find out, I may be.

Rhotic and non-Rhotic are two main categories that English speakers are divided into. It all revolves around how and when you pronounce the sound commonly written in English as "R". Apparently, the earliest cases of losing the "R" sound date back to the 15th century, around the time of the Black Death. Rhotic speakers will pronounce the R in all situations, but non-Rhotic speakers will only say it when followed by a vowel, and sometimes not even then. Sometimes they will use a "linking-R" when a word ending in R is followed by a word beginning with a vowel. And, even more cultured, is the "intrusive-R" that finds it's way into words between vowels or between words. I tried to pronounce some words non-Rhotic-ly and found that a lot of them were foreign sounding, but that most of them rolled right out pretty easy. There was almost a Gone With The Wind sound to my voice. And for good reason I found out.

Southern American English is one of the non-Rhotic dialects. That's what gives all those sweet Southern Belles that wonderfully soft tone. Though I might have to argue Wikipedia's definition of "the South" (the "modern definition" is the one I'd use), I have to admit that they amazed me with their ability to distinguish between the different types of Southern accents. This is something that I have tried to explain to my non-Southern (or should I just say Rhotic) friends my whole life. There is a difference.

For example, I have known people from the coastal areas of SC. One of my best friends in high school had family in the Georgetown, SC area. His grandmother had that wonderful Southern Coastal accent that rarely pronounces an R and sounds as soft as the breeze coming in over the marshes. On the other hand, most of my family is from the upstate where the Highland Southern is more prevalent. But my great grandmother was from way up in the hills (she used to run moonshine as a teenage girl) and could not say the word "wash" without an R sound to save her life. This is defined as the Southern Appallachain accent.

I'd place myself somewhere in the middle of all that. Between my mother's mountain heritage and my time in the Midlands, around all those beautiful coastal folk, I have a nice blend of two wonderful sounding accents. I definitely lean heavier towards the Southern Highland sound, but I have been known to drop an R from time to time.

It was an interesting read and made me feel proud, once again, to be from a place with a little culture. And so, to delve into that culture a little more, I headed over to YouTube to see some of the less refined, but more entertaining, pieces of my culture (that last one is for you, Massons).

Hope you enjoy the Grand Finale.