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November 13, 2005
Dialects
- I grew up and lived in Mongolia for sixteen years. I've been living in the USA for the past three years. Through out my English learning experiences I have acquired certain local dialects as I moved from one place to another across the country to come up with what I have now, the very mixed Zaya's dialect.
I lived in Oregon for a month, in Virginia for a year, and in Maine for two years. I must shamelessly admit that I do not recall what dialect or accent people had in Oregon, since both tension and excitement took me over as I came into an entirely different environment. Even though I lived near the Rocky Mountains for only a month, I suspect that Oregon dialect had an impact on my own American English-Mongolian dialect as important as Virginia and Maine dialects.
When I moved to live in Radford, Virginia I noticed considerable Southern dialect and may have absorbed it while I was there but I think it faded away during my two years of my life in Maine. Even though I was in Maine, I do not have significant Maine accent. I don't think that people can listen to my conversation and tell that I was in the South or in Maine. Probably it is because my Mongolian dialect is more significant than the other two. However, my Mongolian dialect is slipping away as time passes and I might even sound just as American as you are in few years!
- Nannette commented that, "'social group' might actually be the operable factor in different dialects" I think it is true that people change dialects depending on where or with whom they are with. I remember some fascinating and out of the ordinary conversations that took place between my Korean and Japanese friends. Sometimes I was not able to tell whether they were speaking Japanese or Korean with on another. As I became close friends and spent more time with them, they told me that they were speaking English which definitely sounded just like Japanese or Korean to me. When they were talking to each other they totally ignored the American dialect and started to use their own dialects on English language. For example, when they intended to say, "Let's go to dinner" they said, "Letch (english-korean dialect) oyo (adding Japanese 'flavor') go to dinnereyo (more Japanese)". They switched back to their American dialect when they talked to me though, otherwise I was not able to tell whether they were speaking in English, Japanese, or Korean with me.
Posted by lcisbold at November 13, 2005 08:42 AM