Has the Standard American Dialect changed over the last 60 years?

[TXlib]

I was listening to a 60-year-old report of the Battle of the Bulge, and I was noticing, again, how audio footage from the 40s and 50s sounds different from today's.

Something about the way the enunciate... If a radio newscaster sounded like that on the air today, I'd think he sounded right out of the 50s.

Does anybody else know what i mean?

[Lost4words]

1. Ithink its the difference between serious news and entertainment

not the cutsie fluff that passes as news or journalism today!

[Silverhair]

2. Of course. Languages are alive and changing.

That's why the North and the South and the West have different accents. That's why Latin is a "Dead" language. Actually, it didn't die. It mutated into French, Spanish, and Italian. But classic and vulgate latin are dead. However, due to books and old movies, language changes more slowly now.

[sans qualia]

7. Don't forget Portuguese and Romanian

or Catalan, Occitan and Sardinian. Or Poland!

[Silverhair]

23. I don't think Catalan is a Latin derivative.

I think it is the original language from before the Romans.

[SariesNightly]

3. Enunciation is going the way of the dodos pretty soon..

..what with texting, emailing and full blown action oriented reality tv taking over.

[morningglory]

10. Like, you know, I'm like, wow... n/t

[StopTheMorans]

4. no way dawg; that's bunk fo sho!

[BigMcLargehuge]

8. yeah, daddy-o, I'm with you on that

23 skiddoo, the old news-cats were the hippest out there, I mean way out, like, the cats pajamas!

[terrya]

5. Like, the language has changed so much!

Like, you know, like valley speak is now a part of American Standard!

Like, I hear it all the time!

T

[mark11727]

12. Lately I've been catching my 50-year-old self

sprinkling sentences with "...and I'm like 'What the hell'", and expressions like that. I think I sound like an idiot when I talk that way, and I actually have to make a conscious effort to control it.

Like, y'know...? :)

[TXlib]

13. I, too, cringe when I catch myself saying "like" to mean "said"

[Left Is Write]

16. So do I.

I catch myself doing it, and then I'm like, "What the hell am I doing?"

It took me fifteen years to stop saying "go" to mean "said" and now I have a whole new bad habit!

[Left Is Write]

14. Sometime, I'm going to record my teenager for 24 hours.

Then I will play it back and count how many times she says "like."

[patcox2]

6. There is a major vowel shift occurring.

Linguists have suggested there is a major vowel shift occurring which would change the pronunciation of almost every word. Something similar happened in the 1300s and 1400s, which is the reason english vowels are pronounced differently from the way they are pronounced in most other european languages.

The modern shift involves moving the vowel up toward the front of the mouth. It is most prominent in what used to be called "Valley girl" speak, things like "fer shure" and "rilly." That pronunciation, in a more subtle form, is widespread in the way younger people speak nowadays.

This shit fascinates me.

[BiggJawn]

9. Language Evolves.

Here's an idea...
Watch an older Katherine Hepburn movie. Listen to Kate. Now ask yourself, when was the last time you heard anyone speak in that manner today?

Or....

"Of fustian he wered a gypon
Al bismotered with his habergeoun,
For he was late ycome from his viage,
And wente for to doon his pilgrymage.

With hym ther was his sone, a yong SQUIER,
A lovyere and a lusty bacheler;
With lokkes crulle, as they were leyd in presse.
Of twenty yeer of age he was, I gesse."

What language is THAT?
Yeah, it's English. A dialect 800 years old, but English nonetheless.

[SariesNightly]

11. Seen "The Village"?

I don't know what to call it but I like how they talk in that movie.

[TXlib]

15. It sounded really stilted, like bad scriptwriting

But it made sense at the end... they were a bunch of 20th century people trying to speak as they imagined 18th century people speaking.

[BiggJawn]

17. No, I haven't. Where's the setting?

Dialects are fascinating.

[Left Is Write]

19. I think so too.

I'm amazed at the differences between where I live now (Idaho) and my homestate (Minnesota). I've been here four years and still get tagged as a Midwesterner when people hear me talk (and thank goodness! God forbid I lose my Minnesota accent and start talking like an Idahoan...).

I get teased over words like flag and bag. I say them with a long "a" sound; the natives here say them with a short "a" sound.

[TXlib]

18. Yes, I know language evolves

I just assumed it was a slower evolution than a noticeable change in pronunciation over fifty years.

And of course slang changes... that changes on a yearly basis!

[BiggJawn]

20. Guess it's not. 50 years is a significant time in culture.

Is that normal? Who can say. It's only been in the last 100 years or so, since the advent of sound recording, that we can actually HEAR the diferences in speech patterns.

Slang constantly changes. Even Jargon changes, to reflect the changes in the technology.

[Debi]

21. Oh, it's like totally changed , ya know what I'm sayin?

and all that, it's cool and bad and phat and sick.....:shrug:

[mcscajun]

22. And as you might expect, Television is in part responsible.

Once they started training television announcers, newscasters, etc., to speak in this flattened-out, bland Midwestern-like speech, that's what everyone else heard 'round the clock. It was only in the last the last several years that some regional sounds began to creep back in.

[u4ic]

24. Actors in Canada

are also taught American accents, so their own won't be recognized if they get a part in American movies/tv.

Personally, I think Terry Milewski of CBC sounds like an old 50's radio announcer.