Does Accent Change Instrinsically?

From: brennus (galaxym812000_at_yahoo-dot-com.no-spam.invalid)
Date: 03/23/05 

Date: 23 Mar 2005 03:33:25 -0600

Ruud and Brian (Scott),

I can see right now that I'm not going to get you guys to compose
commentaries with an introduction, a premise and a conclusion. It
doesn't seem to be your style. So, I'll try to tailor my responses
more to your way of thinking and doing things.

Don't get me wrong, however. I'm not saying that you don't have a
right to criticize what I write. In a public internet forum, anyone
can criticize what anyone writes; but the more facts and information
you have when you criticize the better off you are. Part of the
problem, too, is that this is a tough subject to talk about on the
internet for anyone. Were I talking to you about it in a bar (tavern,
pub etc) over a couple of beers it would be different and I think we
might understand each other better.

Now, I'll get of my lecture, my soapbox, and just recap the seven
points where objections were raised and give my responses. I realize
that I can't force you to accept them but they do reflect the truth
as I see it.

1) Iain asks a legitimate question. In most languages accent and
pronunciation changes come about through contact with either another
language or another dialect which has higher political or cultural
status. You have to stop and think a bit to find a language or a
dialect where accent change has occured on its own.

Icelandic and Black American English (i.e. Ebonics) are two languages
that have existed and developed almost in vacuum. They are also two
languages where we have some written records that we can compare. For
instance, the Jivaro Indian language deep in the Ecuadorian
rainforest has probably also undegone some changes in accent and
pronunciation on its own too since the Spanish first encountered
them in 1596 but there are no written records to prove it.

2) Icelandic has NOT changed considerably form Old Norse. It is so
close to Old Norse that it still preserves Old Norse sounds like au,
ð and þ unlike the Continental Scandanavian languages (Norwegian,
Danish Swedish).

3) I point out that Icelanders had little contact with their kinsmen
in northern Europe after about 1150 A.D. when the last colonists from
Sweden and Norway arrived there. This means that no new influences
from Norway & Sweden or from the Low German of the Hanseatic
League reached Iceland. The few changes from Old Norse that Icelandic
did undergo were done so in a virtual vacuum. That's all I'm saying.

4)Black English is a pretty homogeneous dialect replete with southern
inflections regardless of what part of the United States it is spoken
in. Ruud is mistaken in thinking that there is a "New York" form and a
"Chicago"
form etc.

5) External influences do affect accents. Celtic tongues shaped Latin
into French. 1,000 years of Chinese rule in Vietnam transformed
Vietnamese from an Austronesian language into more of a Chinese-like
language. The accent and pronunciation of English changed after the
Norman conquest (1066); the umlaut and gutteral sounds disappeared.
There are Spanish inflections on Chicano English, Afrikaans
inflections on South African English etc.

6) It's true that Blacks can be found through out most parts of the
United States from coast to coast - However, the majority of Amrican
Blacks (or "Afro-Americans") still live in the South; 58.4% according
to the 2000 census. Last year I read an article which said that more
Blacks were actually moving back to the South from the northern and
western states.

7) Although de jure segregation ended in the United States between
1947 and 1964, a form of de facto segregation still exists. Blacks
and Whites still live largely apart from one another in public and
reside in separate communities. Hispanics generally don't get along
with Blacks in the United States either. Mexican inmates killed a
number of Black prisoners in a 1979 prison riot in New Mexico and
even beheaded some of them. Prejudice against Blacks still exists
among non-Black Cubans in both Cuba and the United States where many
have come as refugees. I've seen some of it first hand.

Take care! :)

Brennus

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