英语单词大师：Dialect Nomad

 AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: linguist¹ Walt Wolfram from North Carolina State University, a self-described "dialect nomad²" who likes to wander through the dialects of American English.

RS: "And where has this nomadic³ journey taken you this time?"WALT WOLFRAM: "Well, it's actually taken me to a new book that attempts to capture a whole range of dialects. It's titled 'American Voices: How Dialects Differ From Coast to Coast.' And what we tried to do in this book is to take some old, traditional dialects that people are aware of -- say, for example, Appalachian English or African-American English -- and show how they're configuring themselves, but at the same time look at dialect areas that people don't even think about in terms of dialects. Like look at dialect areas of the Midwest or look at places like Utah or Arizona, to show how some of these places are sites of emerging varieties of English."AA: "So, for example, what's coming out of Arizona?"WALT WOLFRAM: "Well, to some extent, what's coming out of Arizona is a sort of a carryover from what's happening in terms of California, where varieties of California English are starting to emerge. But also in Arizona what's happening is you're getting this sort of rural-urban split, where some of the rural residents of Arizona sound more Southern and urban speakers are sounding more like California in terms of some of the shifting vowel⁴ systems."RS: "What about places like Las Vegas or Orlando, places that are growing so quickly that they can hardly assimilate the numbers of people, let alone the different dialects that are coming into the region?"WALT WOLFRAM: "Well, there's a sort of homogenization that initially⁵ takes place. All of these people come in and sort of the native speaker becomes lost. But as a new group settles, what will, for example, happen with Atlanta is it will take some features of its original Southern heritage and it will start to redefine itself linguistically⁶.

"So, for example, one of the things that you'll notice is that although there are lot of Northerners who move to Atlanta, within a couple of years they start saying things like 'y'all' and 'fixin' to' -- for 'I'm fixing to go now' -- something that's going to happen in the immediate⁷ future. Or they may start producing the vowel of 'time' as 'taime' and so forth⁸. So what happens is, there's a selective process linguistically."AA: "I'm curious, you're talking about the emerging California dialect, and that's a state where I spent many years -- and I'm curious, in the media we think of California-speak as being like the 'surfer talk' or the 'Valley Girl' sorts of ways. Is that what you're referring to, or also the influence of -- "WALT WOLFRAM: "Well, I mean, that's more of the public image. What's really sort of the heart of the developing California dialect is changes in the production of the vowels⁹. So, for example, instead of saying something like 'bat,' people may say something more like 'bet.' Or, for example, instead of saying something like 'cool,' they may say something like 'kewl.'

"So whereas we have these associations where, OK, California speech is the use of 'go' to introduce or 'be like' to introduce quotes, for example -- 'So he's like "Whadya doin'?" and I go "Whadya think I'm doin'?"' -- that's the sort of Valley Girl association. And that's certainly part of it, and California is probably where that change started. But what is more significant is some of the more subtle changes in the production of the vowels that people can identify, 'Oh, you're from California.'"AA: Walt Wolfram is the William C. Friday Distinguished¹⁰ Professor of Linguistics¹¹ at North Carolina State University. His newest book, which he edited with Ben Ward¹², is called "American Voices: How Dialects Differ From Coast to Coast."Before we go, we have a question from Kayode Aladeselu in Nigeria, who wants to know it means when Americans say "so long." When a conversation ends with "so long," that simply means goodbye. And now we have to say so long for this week.

Our e-mail address is [email protected]. And if you'd like to learn more about American English, our segments are all posted with transcripts¹³ and audio files at voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

MUSIC: "So-Long-Farewell-Goodbye"/Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.

1 linguist   

n.语言学家；精通数种外国语言者

参考例句：

• I used to be a linguist till I become a writer.过去我是个语言学家，后来成了作家。
• Professor Cui has a high reputation as a linguist.崔教授作为语言学家名声很高。

2 nomad   

n.游牧部落的人，流浪者，游牧民

参考例句：

• He was indeed a nomad of no nationality.他的确是个无国籍的游民。
• The nomad life is rough and hazardous.游牧生活艰苦又危险。

3 nomadic   

adj.流浪的；游牧的

参考例句：

• This tribe still live a nomadic life.这个民族仍然过着游牧生活。
• The plowing culture and the nomadic culture are two traditional principal cultures in China.农耕文化与游牧文化是我国传统的两大主体文化。

4 vowel   

n.元音；元音字母

参考例句：

• A long vowel is a long sound as in the word"shoe ".长元音即如“shoe” 一词中的长音。
• The vowel in words like 'my' and 'thigh' is not very difficult.单词my和thigh中的元音并不难发。

5 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

6 linguistically   

adv. 语言的, 语言学的

参考例句：

• But this group is linguistically, culturally, and even genetically diverse. 但这个人群在语言上，文化上，甚至在遗传上都是多样化的。
• Like the EU, Belgium is linguistically and culturally divided. 与欧盟一样，比利时是个多语言、多文化的地区。

7 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

8 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

9 vowels   

n.元音，元音字母( vowel的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Note the various sounds of vowels followed by r. 注意r跟随的各种元音的发音。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

10 distinguished   

adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的

参考例句：

• Elephants are distinguished from other animals by their long noses.大象以其长长的鼻子显示出与其他动物的不同。
• A banquet was given in honor of the distinguished guests.宴会是为了向贵宾们致敬而举行的。

11 linguistics   

n.语言学

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• Linguistics is a scientific study of the property of language.语言学是指对语言的性质所作的系统研究。

12 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

13 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句