An interesting article in Slate busts the myth that the American accent is becoming homogenized. They take as an example the changes happening in accents around the Great Lakes – known to linguists as the Northern Cities Shift (NCS). This is seen as perhaps being the biggest change for centuries in English pronunciation. And when(…)

Back in 1962, Fred Cassidy was named chief editor of an American dialect dictionary project. He envisioned the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) would be complete by 1976; the first volume was not published until 1985, and covered A to C. The final volume, V, is published in March. DARE stands alone as the(…)

I lived on the Jersey Shore for a summer working at an ice cream store, so I know the accent pretty well. Here’s a great video on how New Jersey dialects are changing:

I found a cute reference if anyone is having difficulties understanding their Southern brothers and sisters – A Glossary of Quaint Southernisms. Not sure I agree with the author that the southern accent has “almost been successfully eradicated by the excellent Southern school systems” – last time I was in South Carolina it was alive(…)