Posted by:
catnip
(
)
Date: November 24, 2017 05:45PM
For most of my life, I have been something of a shape-shifter, when it comes to regional dialects.
After going to Guadalajara (MX) for a summer as an exchange student, my fairly generic Mexican Spanish became distinctly Jaliscan, though I can consciously tone it back down if I am aware that I'm doing this.
The other major linguistic shift in my life came during nearly a decade spent in SE Louisiana, in the 80s. I can do it consciously. I can remember taking a claim by phone from a local, and when I hung up, my co-worker, who sat right behind me, chuckled and said, "Dayum! You're startin' to sound like US, Yankee!" (I think I had not only used the ubiquitous "y'all," but added the possessive form, "y'all's," as in "y'all's house.")
My DH, on the other hand, isn't even aware that he does it. He is bilingual too, and it always makes me smile when I hear his words and articulatory patterns gradually take on the characteristics of whomever he is talking with at the moment.
Here in NM, a LOT of people, even those for whom English is the primary language, have certain Hispanic characteristics to their speech: the classic double-negative (He didn't do nothing!), or "It's over there," (accompanied by a hand wave, used to describe anyplace that isn't "right here.") And of course, the rising and falling tone patterns that are more common to Spanish then to English. I used to fear that people would think DH was making fun of them, but nobody ever has.
In a country as vast as the U.S., I think it is inevitable that our English would vary, from one area to another because of local history or geography.