Speech Communities
Speech Communities
One that has fascinated me is just how differently people of the same language really speak. Even though everyone in this class speaks English, we speak it uniquely from each other. We all grew up in different speech communities, different communities that share expectations and some rules about language use. However, these communities all sound different
For example, an example I like to use my speech community of Northern California. We use words like "like" and "totally" quite a bit in regular life and I still catch myself saying "like", like, totally way too much man. Another difference is that when we talk in Nor Cal, generally, the way we sound when we talk is more relaxed. We also have terms that baffle people from other places. A Wyoming example is "That's a whole other can 'o' worms", this is never said where I am from, and it confused me when I heard it for the first time here. However, I would say things like "on the reg" for things I do regularly, and "let's dip" for expressing the need to leave or go. I don't think I have heard "let's dip" here unless the person I am talking to is also from my side of the vines (which is a term used in Nor Cal, similar to my neck of the woods).
That is not to say that large speech communities can't have smaller ones of their own. Where I am from, people from Wine Country (where I live), the San Francisco Bay, and the Beachfront all sound slightly different from each other. For example, there is a saying that does an excellent job summing this up, "The closer to San Francisco you get, the snobbier everyone is". While this was meant for people's attitudes, sometimes you can also hear it in their voices. Also, more slang is used in Wine Country than the more populated Cities like Oakland (believe what you want, but they term "get outta my grill" came from Wine Country).
One that has fascinated me is just how differently people of the same language really speak. Even though everyone in this class speaks English, we speak it uniquely from each other. We all grew up in different speech communities, different communities that share expectations and some rules about language use. However, these communities all sound different
For example, an example I like to use my speech community of Northern California. We use words like "like" and "totally" quite a bit in regular life and I still catch myself saying "like", like, totally way too much man. Another difference is that when we talk in Nor Cal, generally, the way we sound when we talk is more relaxed. We also have terms that baffle people from other places. A Wyoming example is "That's a whole other can 'o' worms", this is never said where I am from, and it confused me when I heard it for the first time here. However, I would say things like "on the reg" for things I do regularly, and "let's dip" for expressing the need to leave or go. I don't think I have heard "let's dip" here unless the person I am talking to is also from my side of the vines (which is a term used in Nor Cal, similar to my neck of the woods).
That is not to say that large speech communities can't have smaller ones of their own. Where I am from, people from Wine Country (where I live), the San Francisco Bay, and the Beachfront all sound slightly different from each other. For example, there is a saying that does an excellent job summing this up, "The closer to San Francisco you get, the snobbier everyone is". While this was meant for people's attitudes, sometimes you can also hear it in their voices. Also, more slang is used in Wine Country than the more populated Cities like Oakland (believe what you want, but they term "get outta my grill" came from Wine Country).
I found this post very interesting. I have a slight Chicago accent because of the speech community that I am a part of. We also use certain words to describe certain things. My family uses pop to describe soda but I will never call soda pop. - Brandon Reed
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