NARRATION: Imagine you’re sitting down to listen to this package with some food and a drink. You’ve got a thick roll, layered with cheese, cold cuts, maybe even some lettuce. So are you eating a sub? Or is it a hoagie, or a hero, or even a grinder? Okay, now you take a sip of your carbonated, sugary beverage. Are you drinking soda? Or is it pop, or even a coke? Doesn’t matter if it is Coca-Cola you’re drinking.
What’s up with all these different words for the same things? It has to do with regional dialects. Believe it or not, a country as big as the United States is bound to have some differences in speech, all depending on where you’re from.
ASHLEY CHUNG-FAT-YIM: There are multiple different factors that can actually impact why and the reason why we have regional terms and dialects, some of the historical geographical, social and cultural factors.
That’s Ashley Chung-Fat-Yim. She’s a research assistant professor in the department of communication sciences and disorders at Northwestern University. Chung-Fat-Yim described how geography in particular plays into the development of dialects.
CHUNG-FAT-YIM: In the past, there were geographical barriers, such as rivers and mountains, that actually created isolated communities. And over time, these isolated communities actually developed their own distinct dialect or terminology that set them apart from their neighboring regions. But we know that there’s also been migration and there’s been migration patterns and language contact that led to the spread of different languages and dialect features that transferred from one region to another. So when people move to a new area, they bring their own languages with them, which can influence the local speech patterns and vocabulary.
Colonization also plays a role in shaping local dialects. While colonizers often impose their own languages, colonized people also maintain aspects of their native languages. This can lead to the mixing of languages and creating new dialects.
CHUNG-FAT-YIM: This is actually what happened to the language that I speak back at home. I speak Mauritian Creole. And Mauritius was colonized by European countries like the Dutch, French and British. And the interaction between European colonizers and African slaves laid the foundation for the development of Mauritian Creole. And French became like the dominant language like administration, education and culture, which is why like oftentimes when somebody who speaks French who knows French listens to like the language, I speak with my parents, they’ll recognize certain words and they’ll be able to decipher like what we’re saying.
Another factor that influences local dialects is immigration.
CHUNG-FAT-YIM: We know that different ethnic groups they like settled into specific regions, and as a result, they brought their language and dialect with them. And over time, these like linguistic influences, they blend with the local language creating these unique regional dialects terms and vocabulary.
In the Midwest for example, high rates of Polish and German immigration led to some unique region-specific phrases.
JOAN HALL: When I first came to campus, there was a sign above the Memorial Union that said, I thought, brats on the terrace. And I thought, why would they advertise really little children? I quickly learned that “brats” were not “brats”. And that everybody here knew that, but not people in any of the other places I have lived. Nowadays, of course, they’re all over the place. But that was a shock at first.
That’s Joan Hall. She is the chief editor emerita of the Dictionary of American Regional English, or DARE. DARE is a project based at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
HALL: It was the brainchild, really, of Professor Frederick Cassidy. And he got started first, by doing a sample survey of Wisconsin to try to see whether the questions he had in mind actually had some good answers…And then he used those as the basis for the nationwide survey that started in ‘65.…And they had selected 1000 communities across the country. And the people they were interviewing, needed to have been born there and stayed in that community their whole lives. So that way, we could really get an idea of the regionality of their responses.
The initial interviewing period for DARE lasted from 1965 to 1970. Today, they continue adding to their entries. In some ways, language is changing due to increased intermingling of communities.
HALL: Originally, the differences in dialects were basically based on the kinds of people who came to those communities in the beginning. And as people moved west in different waves, those original dialects moved further toward the west coast. So broadly, Dialectologists talk about four major regions north north Midland, South Midland and south. But these days…things are not that clear.
However, one main purpose of DARE’s work is to push back against the idea that American English is becoming homogenized.
HALL: To some extent, it’s true. For instance, when we asked a question about what do you call, a big sandwich in our sandwich, and along by with meats and cheeses, and lettuce, and tomato, had some marvelous maps, a hero was in New York, a hoagie was in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, a grinder was in the Northeast. And those were just very, very well defined. Now, if we were to ask the same question, again, I’m sure that “sub” would be all over the country because of the Subway franchise. But at the same time, I’m sure that we would find regional patterns for the others, but they wouldn’t be as tight, they wouldn’t be as dense. But there’s still a pattern there.
Chung-Fat-Yim also made the point that, in some ways, social media can actually help with accent and dialect preservation.
CHUNG-FAT-YIM: I also think that technology allows for you to have more exposure to diverse languages. And it is, it allows you to also preserve these languages, like for me, like Mauritian Creole, if I’m sure like a lot of people have not heard of it before. And social media and technology allows you to have some kind of digital footprint of that.
So keep on enjoying your hoagies and grinders, your soda and pop. Drink from the bubbler or the water fountain, and put your trash cans out on the tree lawn or the road verge. You’re preserving local culture.
For WNUR News, I’m Allison Rauch.
