Date:  Thu, 24 Mar 1994 10:58:05 -0500

From:  Ellen Johnson <ellenj[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ATLAS.UGA.EDU>

Subject: Re: for the record



On Wed, 23 Mar 1994, Donald M. Lance wrote:

If one

> wants to be upper-class General American, one does not have a strong Southern

> accent. Certain New England accents will do, but Mississippi, no. Kokie's

>

Although congressional representatives are way up there on the social

class scale (since you have to be pretty wealthy to run for office), they

are under pressure, instead, to maintain strong regional dialects so that

their constituents will think they identify with them and they can get

re-elected. Doonesbury had a great strip once on Al Gore switching

between East Tennessee twang in one campaign setting and harvardese in

another. When I was in Chile, I recommended C-SPAN to the EFL

teachers I had in my classes as a way to improve listening comprehension

for American English. (Yes, they have it there on cable.)



Ellen Johnson

ellenj[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]atlas.uga.edu