After spending a career teaching and studying language, if find this fascinating. Yes, we have different "languages" in the US. Austria, where I lived for a number of years, is about the size of our state pf Maine, has more differences. About Alabama and Idaho, there was a CCC camp (1930s) near the town where I grew up. Many of the men were from Alabama, and settled in Mackay. I can't think of examples now, but when I lived in Louisiana I noticed that several "Mackay" words were at home there.. The French language has left its traces in Louisiana, but oddly, some areas still have traces of the German immigrants who settled there. Don't forget that your groceries go into a bag, not a sack. I also like your "pin." Don't forget that there's also an "ink pin."
Oh Von, what is important is how we put down the argument on paper, irrespective of what perspective we are looking at it from.
I've been thinking about what she said about New Hampshire. When I say it out loud, I say New Hampshire. It rhymes with fire. I've never had occasion to say it aloud to anybody else. New Hampshur just doesn't sound right to me. Y'all try saying it aloud and see what you think.
My mother was British. It would have been said "Hampshur" in our household...and I would pronounce it that way.
I have only ever heard it pronounced New Hampshur. In fact, the "p" is there, but very light, almost like New Hamshur.
There's a meme going around, echoed by this video, about not laughing at people who mispronounce words because they have learned from reading vs hearing. While a good point, it's sometimes hard for me to not be a bit startled when people I assume to be well educated to mispronounce things. But some mispronunciations come from learning to talk from parents who mispronounce, and as a young child we still believe what parents say and how they say it. I almost always say mischievous incorrectly. And misspell it too. Luckily I didn't learn to say harse for horse or warsh for wash or gwitar for guitar from my mother. Things like fustrated for frustrated and irregardless for regardless are like fingernails on a chalk board to my ear. I was surprised in the video by the lack of mention that pronunciation of communiqué and appliqué would be helped by writing with the accent aigu from the original French.
That's interesting, I attributed most mispronunciations to people being poorly-read and saying words based upon common pronunciations because they have never seen those word in writing. Regarding works like "warsh," what about the regional dialects that drop the "r" from "car" (cah) and then chuck in on the end of other words (I vacationed in this "arear" of "Florider".) I bet those are universals in the Northeast across the entire spectrum of education level. This reminds me of one of my first jobs and I used to say "heith" with the "th" on the end rather than "height" with the hard "t." Every time I did it, the owner would say "height! height! height!" He wasn't mean about it, but I could tell that it grated...and he broke me of the bad habit...and I have always read a lot. So maybe my prior comment is irreverent.
@John Brunner , it's funny, I tend not to think of those regional quirks as mispronunciation but just an odd dialect. I think about all the dialect and accent differences in Great Britain -- even more than in the US. But yes, it can be amusing where those Rs go and where they show up. there's some region on the east coast, Mid Atlantic / NJ / PA I think that drops their Ts and Ds too in an odd way in compound words. Wouldn't becomes wuh-ent, for example. That drives me nuts too.
Regarding "pin" and "pen," I pronounce them exactly the same so I guess I'm not understanding the nuance (as far as pronunciation.)
I picked up a smidgen of a Tidewater, Virginia accent from living there. Can't seem to get rid of it. People ask me if I'm Canadian. I don't say eh, though.
Try visiting friends in Indiana after having lived in Virginia. They somehow think "Y'all" = "Every one of you"