Date:  Thu, 22 Jan 1998 22:18:42 -0600
From:  Dan Goodman <dsgood[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]VISI.COM>
Subject: Re: some simple -- I hope questions

On Thu, 22 Jan 1998, Bethany K. Dumas wrote:

> I'm not quite sure what the questions are.

Roughly: the other person says that the sounds of American regional
dialects are mostly influenced by the languages of non-Anglophone
immigrants. (I'll requote the relevant part of what she says below.)
My position is that this is not accurate. Is she correct, am I
correct, or are we both partially correct?

I'm not talking about words in the language or patterns of
speech. It's the physical shaping of the sound of which I'm speaking. If
those differences disappear, why is there a southern drawl and an Ozark
twang. Ths country was _not_ settled primarily by English speaking peoples.
The languages of those peoples can be heard in the formation of words by the
peoples of the regions today.

Dan Goodman
dsgood[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]visi.com
http://www.visi.com/~dsgood/index.html
Whatever you wish for me, may you have twice as much.