UPDATE—“MICROACCENTS IN FRANCE.” I posted here about a review of Graham Robb’s THE DISCOVERY OF FRANCE which pointed out the hundreds of subdialects in France at the time of the French Revolution. P.N. Furbank has a review of Robb’s book in the New York Review of Books for December 6 which discusses how small the “pays” which had its own dialect might be: “It might be the area within which its own church bell could be heard more distinctly than those of other villages; and on the other bank of the local river people might very likely speak an altogether different dialect and have quite different traditions and manners.” In my post, I had remarked on how we still have “microaccents”—a contemporary linguist was able to identify the block in the Bronx where Dick Weisfelder grew up.
Categories
Archives
Recent Comments
- ADAPTING GATSBY. (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: I think these are crucial, important decisions, what to leave out of any literary work, maybe any...
- DAMIEN HIRST—AN ART MARKET BUBBLE?. (1)
- Kate Bush: I hope you enjoy my visit to the Damien Hirst show as much as I did The Technical Impossibility of...
- THE MOST IMPORTANT EPISODE OF THE SIMPSONS ? (COMMENT). (1)
- Nick: Homer does has success as the team’s best hitter until Mr. Burns places a bet with a rival factory owner...
- THE “RIGHT TO EDIT”. (1)
- Lee: A relevant Simpsons clip.
- ULYSSES—VIRGINIA WOOLF LIKED THE BOOK, DESPISED THE AUTHOR. (3)
- A DEFENSE OF INVASIVE SPECIES. (3)
- Dick Weisfelder: Today’s Toledo Blade has an article on the importation of live Asian carp to Canada to serve...
- Lee: The downside is that red squirrels are way cuter than their gray cousins. Hitchens on the subject.
- THE OLDEST FANTASY BASEBALL LEAGUE STARTS ITS 32ND SEASON. (COMMENT). (5)
- frank martin: Have been in a an Al only Roto league since 91… started at Ohio University were we all went to...
- DEATH OF A BUMBLEBEE. (1)
- Nick: By contrast, I remember witnessing the entire thing. I was surprised by Annalisa’s reaction and...
- ANOTHER VOTE ON UMBRIDGE. (1)
- Dick Weisfelder: When I look back at one of the Potter books, it’s usually this one. There are just a lot of...
- THE SCARIEST VILLAIN IN HARRY POTTER? (1)
- Dick Weisfelder: Didn’t we all meet her somewhere in grade or high school?
- ADAPTING GATSBY. (1)
Meta
I love to think of an area being defined by how well you could hear the church bell! Love it.
Living in Virginia is an opportunity for me to experience different accents. Lee’s mother has a pretty different accent from most of the people I speak to daily and she grew up in Richmond, or the outskirts. My friend Patsy, who’s lived in Danville her whole life, has a very distinctive accent–but identical to everyone else I met in Danville when I visited.
I’ve only been told once that I had an accent, and that was by a college-aged boy who was from Portland, Oregon. Patsy says I speak “normally” and said she couldn’t imitate the way I talk.
Pingback: Pater Familias » THE SOUND OF BELLS (COMMENT).
Pingback: LOCAL NAMES ON THE LANDSCAPE. | Pater Familias