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The epic linguistic map came up in conversation at work today, so today is one of those days to regularly to pause and spend some time admiring this map of North American English dialects by Rick Aschmann: #linguistics #LinguisticGeography #cartography #OutsiderArt #NorthAmerica #maps #dialect #dialectology 25 comments
  @alan #NewMexico I don't think this map got northern New Mexico correct. (click for map) I opened the map in a new tab so I could zoom in. @philsplace @alan If someone just has to have a 'midwest' here is the only area that makes any sense at all. #Midwest Now you are just messing with me. The west starts at Colorado and extends to the Pacific ocean. Soβ¦ midwest would be around Utah/Nevada. ;-) β Seriously thoβ¦ the βwestβ in midwest being west of the eastern seaboard is just wrong. The βmidwestβ is really the east βwestββ¦ since none of it is in the actual west. @alan @philsplace I'll never accept that the Great Plains of North America count as Midwest. Having lived in both geographies, there is no way that's allowable. Waitβ¦ how in the hell are you poeple pronouncing βboneβ? βonβ rhymes with βDonβ βDonβ and βDawnβ are pronounced exactly the same And the βoβ in bone is a long vowel because of the βeβ at the end @alan it's impressive, but woefully incomplete IMHO - I can think of at least five different dialects just along the I-5 corridor alone, from Chicano English and the modified Valleyspeak (which I mentally call the "skater's dialect") of Humboldt County and the Emerald Triangle to the Portland dialect's fronted vowels and the flat, country radio-informed pseudo-twang of lumber town natives. It's silly to paint everything west of Denver as one huge blob of homogeneity with a few small enclaves! @doctorLURK @alan I was going to add the same about the "we're just phoning it in" blob for most of English Canada. @krupo @alan I believe it! The truth is that a lot of research into these dialects is still ongoing because they're relatively young, so not a lot of them have been formally accepted yet. It's still weird to see that unfinished work visualized. We know better than to think it's definitive - we *know* languages are always evolving, if nothing else - but our ape brains can't resist thinking "this is set in stone" when we see static information like this. It's still a really cool project! @doctorLURK @alan I read on more deeply, and there were a few relevant points. Almost 1000 samples in the collection and following a CBC interview: "Note to Canadians: Nora points out that Canadians are currently underrepresented on the map. So, this is your chance to change that! Send in your samples...." It's funny because I can pick up different accents just from the different parts of Toronto   @pjohanneson @alan |
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@alan hmmm, where's the "Epic Linguistic Map" I was promised in the first sentence? :)