The Pacific Southwest Dialect

The way people speak has to do with the community they grew up in, along with the region that an individual lives in. In America, there are many diverse dialects possibly because of the numerous cultures brought by 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 than the stereotype created by Hollywood. The Pacific Southwest has interesting origins of the dialect, influences that helped create the dialect, and how the dialect is perceived by others. The origins of the Pacific Southwest dialect started when settlers came to California in search of gold. 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 different dialects she witnessed from the California mines in 1851. She stated in her Letter the