Re: prestige dialects Re: Why is Hindi perceived as being more refined than Punjabi?


"Seán O'Leathlóbhair" <jwlawler@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Is there really no dialect snobbery in the US?

There certainly is, all over North America. If you don't speak with the
accent appropriate to the region, you set yourself up to be mocked for your
provincial origins. This happens to people who have, for instance, Canadian
Raising in their dialect; in other parts of the US, they are made fun of.
Having a 'redneck' accent is never a good thing in an urban, left-wing,
'sophisticated' place like New York or California.

In *The Silence of the Lambs* - the book - the FBI girl came from the South
and apparently did a fairly good job of disguising her accent and speaking
in 'General American', as appropriate to her career. One of the aerly creepy
things about Hannibal was that he saw through it, and was able to pinpoint
her exact place of origin, thoroughly humiliating her and establishing his
power-control over her. In the film, Jodie Foster speaks with an obivously
Southern accent, although what sounds to me like a rather posh Southern
accent; this takes away from the creepiness of that encounter.

Neeraj Mathur


.

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