thelinguistnerd

[thelinguistnerd]

Whenever syntactic diversity is studied and not just critizised (yes, critiZised; I am currently in the US, dude!), I am all ears. "Gas is expensive anymore", "He might not could come", "This glass needs washed"; if you fail to see the beauty in these expressions, well... If not, follow the link.

[thelinguistnerd]

Despite the large German ancestry in the US, the German language is almost completely replaced by English by now (which is of course neither a good nor a bad thing, but a natural development). However, a small group of speakers of the Texas German Dialect are still alive and this page gives you an insight on what the University of Texas at Austin does in order to preserve the dialect for academic and non-academic studies. Listen to the sound-samples, really priceless. Trotz der relativ hohen Zahl deutschstämmiger US-Amerikaner ist die deutsche Sprache in den USA heute fast komplett vom Englischen ersetzt worden (was weder gut noch schlecht, sondern eine normale Entwicklung ist). Es gibt aber noch eine kleine Gruppe von Sprechern des Texas-German, deren Dialekt auf dieser Seite für akademische ebenso wie nicht-akademische Interessen bewahrt wird. Die Hörproben sind auf eine sehr interessante Weise aufschlussreich und unterhaltsam zugleich.

#German-Americans #deutschamerikaner #deutsche dialekte #Linguistik #linguistics

[thelinguistnerd]

Qué difícil es hablar el español

Simplemente buenísimo.

#acentos españoles #lingüística #linguistics #linguistik

[thelinguistnerd]

Ejemplos de varios acentos hispanoamericanos realizados por hablantes femeninos. Lo interesante es que aquí los acentos no son tan marcados como en otros vídeos que subí antes, hay pocos indicios para poder clasificar los ejemplos, pero todo y eso queda bastante claro de donde vienen las hablantes.

#acentos españoles

[thelinguistnerd]

Italianamerican is a short film a young Martin Scorsese did in 1974 about his parents. Asides from being a beautiful and interesting youtube-gem for Scorsese-fans and film-addicts, it is a documentary on original New York [Nu Yoik]-accent. If you want to learn why the gangsters in Scorsese’s films talk the way they walk [toak de way dey toak], here you’ll find the answer.

The way Marty’s mother pronounces “mother-in-law”, “sauce”, or “because” are – for all I know – perfect examples for what is called the low back chain shift, making it sound like “mother in loa”, “soace” and “becoase”.

The New York-accent is called a non-rhotic-accent, which is why parents drop the /r/ at the end of words like “father”, “easier”, or at the end of syllables like “harder”.

/th/ sounds like /d/ or even /t/ sometimes, Marty’s father says “At the time, there was a big thing for vests.” at 4:05, and it sounds like “…a big ting…”

But the most beautiful feature could easily be the vowelization of /r/, a phenomenon so cliché New York that it is never missing when East-Coast Mobsters are being imitated, but you hardly get to hear it in its natural habitat. Marty’s father does it beautifully at 4:17 “Give me thirty-five [toidy-five], forty cents”, or at 6:01 “it was in the shape of a church [choich]”, or – classic – at 7:43 “when I come home from work [woik]”.

There’s a lot more to find, but you might as well just enjoy these clips for what they are: a priceless documentary of a New York very different from what it is now.

#New York accent #english accents

[thelinguistnerd]

Even though I knew about the large percentage of German-Americans, it was sort of eye-opening seeing this map for the first time. It kind of made me rethink some of my european stereotypes about “those americans”.

Obwohl mir bewusst war, dass ein bedeutender Teil der US-Amerikaner deutscher Abstammung ist, war ich doch überrascht, als ich diese Karte zum ersten Mal sah. Man sollte vielleicht etwas vorsichtiger sein mit den europäischen Vorurteilen gegenüber den “Amis”. Source/Quelle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American

#german-americans #deutschamerikaner #karte #map

[thelinguistnerd]

Me ze zeca y me ze pransha!

Me encanta este clip porque el señor basicamente pronuncia mal todo lo que puede pronunciar mal. Zezeo, confusión de /n/ y /m/, de /b/ y /v/, hipercorrecciones... aquí si que hay todo lo que el lingüísta desea en solo 21 segundos.

  Transcripción (no científica): "Noo uma labadora, esto uma zecadora. Y me ze zeca la ropa y me ze pransha. Poque e daautomática. [...] Ehto toco asín... Ve? Funciona, ve?" -Y si quita la mano de ahí? -"Za para, ve?"

#acentos españoles #acento de españa #comedia

[thelinguistnerd]

No, he doesn't do 21 accents. But there is one thing I find interesting about this video: Listen to the way he says "Puerto Rico" at 1, 2, and 3. It shows pretty clearly the three alternative pronounciations of /rr/ in Puerto Rico: 1. [rr] as in any other spanish-speaking country, too. 2. [hr] is a half-arrastrada-version, in between 1 and 3. 3. The R arrastrada [x] which sounds very hard and to my knowledge only exists in PR (and NY, of course) .

(See also the PR-comedy video I posted earlier on) No, no llega a hacer 21 accentos. Pero hay una cosa de este video que me parece interesante: fijados en su manera de decir "Puerto Rico" en 1, 2 y 3. Da un ejemplo muy bueno de las 3 realizaciones alternativas de /rr/ en PR: 1. [rr] como el cualquier otro país de habla hispana también. 2. [hr] la version media-arrastrada, entre 1 y 3. 3. La "erre arrastrada" [x] que suena muy duro y por lo que yo sé existe solamente en PR (y Nueva York, por supuesto).

(Véase también el vídeo de comedy boricua que subí previamente)

#acento puertorriqueño #acentos españoles #comedia

[thelinguistnerd]

Found this online somewhere... I like how the norwegian just keeps holding on to his fish.

#comedy #scandinavian accents

[thelinguistnerd]

Brooklyn Comedian Rasheed (RIP)

Nice example of a phenomenon which I don't know if it is "officially" considered part of a New York accent: he makes /r/ sound like /v/, at 3:42 he says "Mister Riviera" and it comes out Vevera [və'vɛɹa]. Heard this many times before, I will soon post up a video of another heavy user of this NY-RV sound: the RZA.

#english accents #new york accent #comedy

[thelinguistnerd]

Accento puertorriqueño perfecto Puede ser que este video solo sea gracioso para la gente que conozca el acento puertorriqueño y la situación culinaria en algunas partes de la isla pero de todas maneras da un ejemplo perfecto del pueltorro hablado actualmente. En 1:00 pide su combito de tamaño regular y lo pronuncia [xegu'lal], con la famosa /rr/ arrastrada de PR.

Lo mismo en 1:35 "A me lo vas a regalar?" [xega'lal]

La Real Academia arruga la nariz, el linguista disfruta.

#comedia #comedy #spanish accents #puerto rican accent #acentos españoles #acento puertorriqueño

[thelinguistnerd]

Yeah, your mother / Deine Mudda / ...y tu madre

Today being International Mother Language Day, I want to share this map. Not only does it make you counscious of all the languages in danger, it shows how many languages there are you've never heard about. In fine, a frustrating tool in any perspective.

Da heute der Internationale Tag der Muttersprache ist, wollte ich diesen Atlas teilen. Man bekommt nicht nur ein Gefühl für all die weltweit bedrohten Sprachen, sondern auch für alle Sprachen, von denen man noch nie etwas gehört hat. Ein frustrierendes Gerät in jeder Hinsicht. Hoy siendo el Día Internacional de la Lengua Materna, quiero compartir este mapa. Aparte de dar una impresión sobre las lenguas mundiales en peligro de extinción también da una idea de la cantidad de lenguas que uno no conoce. En fin, un utensilio frustrante en cada sentido.