#bernie sandahs

[ayoungpro]

Bernie Sanders' accent explained

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Objectives:

See how accent and linguistics can help you understand English more clearly

Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waeXBCUkuL8

Vocabulary:

Broad consensus: most people agree

Diagram: a simple picture of something

Ethnicity: the national or social background of a person

Immigration: people coming to a place

Linguists: people who talk about the sounds of language

Non-rhotic: dropping the R sound

Vowel sounds: A  E I O U plus a lot more

Exercices:

Is it easy to understand new accents? Can you think of a time you were surprised by an accent?

What do you think your accent says about you? Think about your origin, how much time you’ve been learning English and what accents have influenced your accent etc.

What is your favorite native accent? British english, scottish, irish, australian, standard americain...

The new York accent is associated with the accent of the mafia and criminals, do you think there are other associations with other accents?

Do you think it is important to keep accents? As a sign of your home country or that it’s better to sound standard?

Transcript:

Bernie Sanders represents Vermont in the U.S. Senate but you probably noticed — SANDERS:“Millionaihs and Billionaihs” — that his voice represents another place entirely. And another time. “New York City: Where the world’s nations sit side by side” Sanders grew up in Brooklyn in the 40s and 50s. The city had long ago developed a distinctive accent. Surprisingly, its features can be traced back to the early English settlers rather than the big waves of immigration that came later. NEWMAN: “The most famous feature of the New York City accent is what linguists call the ‘thought’ vowel - and I just said it in a very New York way. SANDERS: “Tawk the issues to the people” “And second of awl” “There is a brawd consensus” When Bernie Sanders says these words, the position of the vowel is raised. What does that mean? For me it was helpful to look at this chart of vowel sounds. It’s shaped like this because it’s basically a diagram of your mouth, with the vowels mapped according to the position of your tongue when you say them. Try saying eeee and oooo and pay attention to your tongue. Eee-ooo. No, really, try it. eee-ooo-eee-ooo. It’s moving forward and back, but it can also move up and down. Without moving your jaw too much try aaa-eee. aaa-eee-aaa-eee. Researchers measure the position of these sounds by analyzing their frequencies. So what’s happening with the New York City “thought” vowel is that it stays back but moves up. Instead of “thought” you get “thawt” This feature is becoming less distinct with each generation, according to a recent survey of native New Yorkers — particularly among white people. The more recent the birth year, the lower the “thought” vowel. It goes from cawfee to coffee. “So the cawf  none of my nephews or nieces will say it that way” You can also hear Bernie Sanders’ New York roots in his Rs ...or actually his lack of Rs. “Democratic pahty” “Our computas” “Denmahk” “In Novembah” Like dialects from Boston “Are you a nahk?” and Savannah “I like to drive undah the speed limit”, the New York City accent is historically non-rhotic, meaning Rs often get dropped, except before vowels. So newscasters call him “Bernie Sanders” but he calls himself “Bernie Sandahs.” R-dropping is something that became fashionable in London in the late 1700s before spreading to the East Coast of the US. “There must be an end to speculation with othah people’s money.” But now, it too is fading. NEWMAN: “Particularly after the second world war it lost its prestige. “ Americans were focused on their own identity rather than maintaining ties to England. And as pop culture increasingly portrayed New Yorkers as criminals, the stigma led some to intentionally lose their accents. As with all dialects, the New York City accent is more pronounced among the working class. Which may help explain why Sanders — who grew up in a lower-middle class home — has a heavier accent than Donald Trump, also a native New Yorker. "Law enforcement. "Law enforcement." But the accent also varies by ethnicity. So, many people might recognize Sanders’ Jewish intonations. “My name is rabbi Manny Shevitz.” One thing you might notice is the Ts at the end of some his words. “Profound and important.” NEWMAN: “Normally you wont say the T very much. You’ll say, ‘where’d you go?’ ‘I left.’ But you would rarely say ‘I lefT.’ And It’s kind of typical of Jews to do that, to say ‘I lefT.’” SANDERS: “This country, in facT.” “I very much rejecT.” But it’s also in the pacing and the rise and fall of how he speaks. Which is why, to do a really good Bernie Sanders, it helps if you’re also a Jew from 1950s working-class Brooklyn. DAVID: “This may not be great politics, but I think the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.” One of the things both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are known for is their pronunciation of the “hyu” sound. SANDERS: “A yooge voter turnout. And I say yooge!” Why do New Yorkers drop the h at the front of the word? Well the answer seems to be that it takes less energy to say yooge than huge. Consider another H that most of us have dropped — the H one in what, where and when. Back before the 18th century, it was considered uneducated speech to say what instead of hwhat. Maybe in the future all English-speaking yoomans will say yooge.

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