Pacific Southwest Dialect In English

The way people speak has to do with the community they grew up in, along with the region that an individual lives in. In America, there are many diverse dialects possibly because of the numerous cultures brought from the immigrants that came to America. As Walt Whitman said, “Viewed freely, the English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range of time, and is both free and compacted composition of all.” There are many different regions of American English. One of them is called the Pacific Southwest, a region that covers California. The dialect is commonly known to be the accent of Surfer Dudes and the Valley Girls. However, there is more to the dialect than the stereotype created by Hollywood. The Pacific Southwest has interesting origins of the dialect, influences that helped create the dialect, and how the dialect is perceived

Californians use the expression freeway, while most Americans say highway. Another difference is that Californians say a freeway’s name instead of it’s number. The accent’s pronunciation of sounds, mostly vowels, are what set the dialect apart from the other American English dialects. The articulation of wealthy, white, teenage girls established as “Valley Girl Talk” is often affiliated with Southern California. Notwithstanding, Stanford linguist Penny Eckert has come to the conclusion that those enunciations can also be found in Northern California. It is called the Great Vowel Shift and it is characterized with methodical switches in the pronunciation of vowels in certain vocabulary of the language. Unlike the more prevalent Southern Shifts, the Great Vowel Shift is still developing, and is not the accent of all Californians. The shift’s coalition with the speech the Valley Girls and Surfer Dudes may cause the spread of the shift to lag in California, as it is negatively considered the accent of dumb