English Language In America

The way people speak has to do with the community they grew up in, along with the phrases and accents that they use which is affected by the region that an individual lives in. In America, there are many diverse dialects possibly because of the numerous cultures brought from the immigrants that came to America. As Walt Whitman said, “Viewed freely, the English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range of time, and is both free and compacted composition of all.” There are many different regions of American English. One of them is called the Pacific Southwest, a region that covers California. The dialect is commonly known to be the accent of Surfer Dudes and the Valley Girls. However, there is more to the dialect

Some of the words the miners used are still said today. Phrases such as, “pay dirt”, “pan out”, and “goner”. The Gold Rush brought various cultures to the frontier. Communities were formed, reformed, and dissolved throughout the process of traveling to California, in the Gold Rush years. In the Shirley Letters, Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe, writing with her pen name Dame Shirley, was astonished by the diiferent dialects she witnessed from the California mines in 1851. She stated in her Letter the Fourteenth, “You will hear in the same day, almost at the same time, the lofty melody of the Spanish language, the piquant polish of the French, the silver, changing clearness of the Italian, the harsh gangle of the German, the hissing precision of the English, the liguid sweetness of the Kanaka, and the sleep-inspiring languor of the East Indian.” (Shirley

Although Hollywood has created a stereotype for the accent, it is not exclusively spoken by blondes. Penelope Eckert and Norma Denton explained in the article “American Varieties California English”, the diversity of the state. The real California, with a population of 34 million, is only 46,7% white. Most of them are not blonde and don’t spend their days at the beach. California has a large Latino population that currently accounts for 32.4% of the state’s numbers. Also, the state recently has a large Chinese-American and Japanese-American population. California now has a large and diverse Asian-American population that accounts for 11.2% of the population. (Eckert, Penelope, and Norma Denton, “American Varieties California English.”, pbs.org ) The Pacific Southwest’s cultural multifariousness gives the area a fascinating linguistic style. Because of Hollywood, the dialect is recognizable and is percieved negatively by