Posted on 02/04/2005 4:09:39 AM PST by grassboots.org
PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A new class that seeks to teach youngsters how to lose their Appalachian accents has set off an age-old phonetic debate: Should mountain natives drop the drawl or hold tightly to their twang?
The class, put on by an eastern Kentucky theater group, is designed for children in middle and high schools who want to reduce their accent to "broaden their performance opportunities and improve overall marketability."
"We don't want people to be held back just because they have an accent," said Martin Childers, managing director of Jenny Wiley Theatre in Prestonsburg. "If you want to work professionally, you have to be able to drop the accent when it's required. We want to give people the opportunity to learn to do that."
People from central Appalachia have been wrestling with the accent for as long as they have been driving to northern cities to land jobs. Some quickly adopted the speech patterns of Cincinnati or Detroit co-workers to avoid being ridiculed. Others held onto the accent like a cherished keepsake from home.
The Appalachian accent is the sort of southern drawl heard in the movie "Coal Miner's Daughter," about singer Loretta Lynn, a native of Van Lear, Ky. It shows up at times in the fitting of words together into what sounds like one word: "Did you eat?" becomes "jeat?" and "young ones" becomes "young'uns."
An Appalachian accent can be an asset if a casting director wants an authentic mountain sound, but Childers said a strong accent can prevent actors from being able to fill some roles, especially those involving characters from the Northeast or Midwest.
(Excerpt) Read more at lasvegassun.com ...
Exactly.
How very true. The controlled use of language can very clearly dictate the position one can hold in life. In the majority of cases it DOES make a difference. Having command of correctly-spoken Spanish will be a significant asset in the United States within 5-10 years. However, language pattern is one of the the most difficult things to change about people, period.
There is nothing sweeter on this earth than hearing a West Virginia girl speak. Leave it alone.
Not widely accepted, but the absolute truth.
I wonder if John Kerry thinks this is a good idear
City folk like to look down on country folk. It's a big missing piece in their "tolerance" veneer.
Eh! Fuggedaboutit!
Actually, work on speech used to be pretty common in public schools. In New York, immigrant children worked on pronunciation and grammar, and black children were also expected to be able to learn to speak correctly, especially if they were in the classes that had higher academic standards. All of this went away in the '60s and '70s, of course.
However, there are many private speech therapists in New York who teach adults how to modify a heavy regional accent. Many New Yorkers who work in fields where they might have to speak publicly outside of the New York area - attorneys, etc. - pay lots of money for accent eradication or modification.
PC? Yeah, but also snobbery and elitism.
When I was a kid I was taught to be an individual and to avoid trying to be someone I'm not. Today the kids are supposed to conform.
Its also from a theatre group targeting potential actors who need to be able to take a variety of roles. Its not like its the educrats treating it like a disability.
It's a class put on by a theatre group. Common sense education.
Why is it that whenever I'm down South, I never hear a local newscaster with a Southern accent? Southerners don't want to hear the accent either?
They should be left the h*ll alone! A kid can learn the proper use of the language without sacrificing his uniqueness. This infuriates me. The school is probably either run by yankees, or by those who are citified Kentuckians who think they're somehow better. Leave the south alone!
Being from Georgia, I have a HEAVY southern drawl. I've watched people's entire demeanor change when they first hear me speak, treating me like I'm "slow" and having a very condescending attitude toward me. I DO call them on it every time!
I will admit to having a negative attitude toward anyone with a heavy NY accent. This is based on prior experience with New Yorkers. The ones who I've known have ALL acted culturally superior and have loudly remarked how "slow, backward, and boring" life is here in the South.
It is sad that accents dictate how we view each other because I think it is an important "diverse" trait that makes a person unique. I love to hear different accents, especially those from Minnesota.
I recall that JFK, the President one, would open the "winders" to the world.
Saying "jeet' and "young uns" is an example of colloquial vocabulary and not accent.
A person from a particular region such as eastern Kentucky will likely have an accent when speaking what we would consider proper English.
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