English Dialects in the US.

Did you know that communication breakdowns can occur as the result of language barriers within the same language?

I learned this first hand while hitchhiking through Europe (in college) and found my greatest communication problems took place while in England and Scotland. The farther north I went, the less I understood and eventually I resorted to simply nodding my head in agreement hoping it was the appropriate response. It always struck me that although France has many regional dialects, I never had difficulty understanding the message there while varying dialects in my mother tongue had me tongue tied.

When I returned to the states, my awareness of dialect differences within the US grew and I learned to fine-tune my listening skills as I worked throughout the United States. My goal was to be effective and I knew I had to adjust my perception of what constitutes the norm.

Here is a website created by an American linguist that proposes there are 8 dialects in the US and offers samples of each, dialect maps, dialect description charts and more. Yes, I find these things interesting.

Can you effectively communicate with those who speak these varying dialects?

http://aschmann.net/AmEng/