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November 13, 2005
Social Group Influence
Social groups are, in my opinion, the most influencial factor in different dialects. Not only do we have different tones and word choices with our family and friends but we have different dialects too. With my friends I have a more casual tone and even different sentence structure. I use a more urban language and even my sarcasm rate is higher when I am with my friends. In front of my family I try to make things easier to understand and use a more nice tone. I definetly have more of a German accent with my family because they also show it a lot more, being old fashioned. When I worked as a file clerk for the vice president of a high power company, I would be very formal to my employer. Though a certain level of comfortableness was felt after awhile, tone was kept very even. My word choice was more intelligent and more pronounced (for example, I said "yes" instead of "yea."). Not only do we have different dialects with our employers but also around those who are "upper class" or who certainly make more money than I do.
-Jess
Posted by lcisyeich at November 13, 2005 09:10 PM