Mapping North American English dialects.

jenniferanne:

a-v-p:

I’d just like to say that the whole of the Western United States isn’t as homogeneous as this map makes it seem. There are subtle vocabulary and vowel differences between regions of California, particularly between LA and the Bay Area, and I know that California dialects aren’t the…

Is there any link to a larger version of this map? Even expanded it’s way too small to read. Even without the full context here, I don’t buy for one second that most of Canada shares one accent (even if we imagine ourselves that we do,) and that the American/Canadian border really acts as a sharp barrier between accents. I’m no linguist but I notice subtle regional differences in British Columbia itself, as well as differences between BC, Ontario and Quebec anglophones (these are places I’ve spent significant time.) Especially when rural areas are considered. Urban speakers are probably close enough to alike (depending on class) for any regional difference to be indistinguishable, but differences in rural accents are noticeable if you pay attention. Native people also tend to speak with a particular accent that I can’t even begin to mimic, and there are regional differences within that too.

(Source: aschmann.net, via becoming-wave)