Re: Dialects in communication

From: Todd Gardiner <todd.gardiner_at_dXWtpSgQE-KnFIRbiSGIEw3KO0nBJmOgY9O_yv3AZ1pozcdg6iHOQtN4o147K2>
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:49:16 -0800

Actually, I would guess that those first term students had not traveled around their own country until University. Making this a better example of a LESS modern occurrence.
My experience with living in England was that young people outside of Greater London really don't travel much at all, especially to destinations within England. And the same was true for adults once they start having children and are less free to travel.

TV doesn't help, except to understand the BBC and American television accents, in general. Certain there aren't a lot of shows on the television set in Berick-upon-Tweed...

On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 12:58 PM, Simon Phipp <soltakss_at__V6ll9R_LSy6rsgJ2cz8h1-x14l9GcQmezimiKxDpbPEttjpWfrpihCEN5siDTJkHurXRxTC5iR1LcRkQQ.yahoo.invalid> wrote:

> Grimmund:
>
>
> > Assuming both sides *want* to communicate, dialect isn't automatically
> > a barrier. If one side or the other doesn't particularly want to
> > communicate, dialect can become a convenient excuse.
>
> You've probably heard this before, but ... When I was at University
> there were two female first-year students, one from Sheffield and one
> from Bristol. For the first term they passed each other in the corridor
> and smiled, just because they couldn't understand a word each other
> said except for "Hi". So, two intelligent English-born women could not
> understand each other's dialect.
>
> In a less modern society, dialect is more of a challenge. Travellers
> will probably be able to understand several dialects but the more
> sedentary and conservative ones will find it difficult to understand
> each other.
>
> See Ya
>
> Simon
>
>

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