Definition and Discussion of General American English

Definition and Discussion of General American English General American English is a somewhat vague and outdated term for a  variety of spoken American English that seems to lack the distinctive characteristics of any particular region or ethnic group. Also called network English or newscaster accent. The term General American (GA, GAE, or GenAm) was coined by English professor George Philip Krapp in his book The English Language in America (1925). In the first edition of History of the English Language (1935), Albert C. Baugh adopted the term General American, calling it the dialect of the Middle States and the West. General American   is sometimes broadly characterized as speaking with a midwestern accent, but as William Kretzschmar observes (below), there has never been any single best or default form of American English that might form the basis for General American (A Handbook of Varieties of English, 2004). Examples and Observations The fact that I conjugate my verbs and speak in a typical Midwestern newscaster voicetheres no doubt that this helps ease communication between myself and white audiences. And theres no doubt that when Im with a black audience, I slip into a slightly different dialect.(U.S. President Barack Obama, quoted by Dinesh DSouza in Obamas America: Unmaking the American Dream. Simon Schuster, 2012)The term General American is sometimes used by those who expect for there to be a perfect and exemplary state of American English . . .. However, in this essay the term Standard American English (StAmE) is preferred; it designates the level of quality (here of pronunciation) that is employed by educated speakers in formal settings. StAmE pronunciation differs from region to region, even from person to person, because speakers from different circumstances in and different parts of the United States commonly employ regional and social features to some extent even in formal situations.(William A. Kret zschmar, Jr., Standard American English Pronunciation. A Handbook of Varieties of English, ed. by Bernd Kortmann and Edgar W. Schneider. Mouton de Gruyter, 2004) [T]he standard assumption for American English is that even educated speakers, from certain regions at least (most notably New England and the South), at times use regional pronunciation characteristics and thus speak with an accent; hence, despite the persistent belief in a homogenous General American accent or notions like network English there is in fact no single norm of pronunciation that corresponds to RP [received pronunciation] in England, being a non-regional class dialect.(Edgar W. Schneider, Introduction: Varieties of English in the Americas and the Caribbean. A Handbook of Varieties of English, ed. by Bernd Kortmann and Edgar W. Schneider. Mouton de Gruyter, 2004) Variants in Network English It is important to note that no single dialectregional or socialhas been singled out as an American standard. Even national media (radio, television, movies, CD-ROM, etc.), with professionally trained voices have speakers with regionally mixed features. However, Network English, in its most colourless form, can be described as a relatively homogenous dialect that reflects the ongoing development of progressive American dialects (Canadian English has several notable differences). This dialect itself contains some variant forms. The variants included within this targeted accent involve vowels before /r/, possible differences in words like cot and caught and some vowels before /l/. It is fully rhotic. These differences largely pass unnoticed by the audiences for Network English, and are also reflective of age differences.(Daniel Jones, English Pronouncing Dictionary, 17th ed. Cambridge University Press, 2006) ​​General American vs. the Eastern New England Accent A few examples of differences between some regional dialects and General American or Network English are in order here, though these are necessarily selective. In the characteristic speech of Eastern New England, for instance, rhotic /r/ is lost after vowels, as in far or hard, while it is retained in all positions in General American. A rounded vowel has been retained in Eastern New England in words like top and dot, whereas General American uses an unrounded vowel. Another Eastern New England characteristic is the use of /É‘/ in words like bath, grass, last, etc., where General American uses /a/. In these respects the New England accent shows some similarities with British RP.(Diane Davies, Varieties of Modern English: An Introduction. Routledge, 2013) Challenges to the Concept of General American The belief that American English consists of General American and the Eastern (Northern) and Southern dialect varieties was called into question by a group of American scholars in the 1930s. . . . In 1930 [Hans] Kurath was named the director of an ambitious project called The Linguistic Atlas of the United States and Canada. He patterned the project on a similar European undertaking that had been completed some years before the American project started: Atlas linguistique de la France, which ran between 1902 and 1910. Given the results of their work, Kurath and his co-workers challenged the belief that American English had the varieties Eastern, Southern, and General American. Instead, they suggested that American English is best viewed as having the following major dialect areas: Northern, Midland, and Southern. That is, they did away with the elusive notion of General American and replaced it with the dialect area that they called Midland.(Zoltn Kà ¶vecses, American English: An In troduction. Broadview, 2000) Many Midwesterners are under the illusion that they speak without an accent. They may even believe that they speak Standard American English. But most linguists understand that there is not a single, correct way to speak English. So, yes, even Midwesterners speak with an accent.(James W. Neuliep,  Intercultural Communication: A Contextual Approach, 6th ed. SAGE, 2015)It should be emphasized that everyone speaks with an accent; it is as impossible to speak without an accent as to speak without making sounds. When people deny they have an accent, this is a statement of social prejudice and not linguistics.(Howard Jackson and Peter Stockwell, An Introduction to the Nature and Functions of Language, 2nd ed. Bloomsbury Academic, 2011) Also see: Standard American EnglishAccent PrejudiceEthnic Dialect,  Idiolect,  Regional Dialect, and  Social DialectMarkednessPrestigePronunciationStandard English

Free Essays on Black Religion

Essay Response-Black Theology According to Cone, Black theology is representative of the â€Å"historical fight for justice.† Black theology cannot be separated from power and politics. Black theology is what gave Black people the motivation to fight for their future and go against society, politics, and discrimination. â€Å"The term ‘Black Theology’ was created in this social and religious context. It was initially understood as the theological imagination in the struggle of freedom independently of white theologians† (570). Cone defines Black Theology as a â€Å"theology of black liberation†(571). Black Theology is said to have been â€Å"born in the context of the black community as black people were attempting to make sense out of their struggle from freedom†(571). Cone says, â€Å"Black theology can be found in our songs, prayers and sermons†¦it is the black vision of truth, preeminently the certainty that we were created not for slavery but for freedom. It began when white theology degraded black people and it gave them the hope to move on from this. In addition to theological issues, Black Theology provided freedom from white oppressors. Cone says â€Å"We felt the need to explain ourselves and to be understood from our own vantage point and not from the perspectives and experiences of whites†(569). Black theology helped black people to be set free from white racism. While whites used Christianity to give reason for slavery, blacks used it to go against the immorality of slavery. Faith empowered the weak and distraught black community into restoring itself. Society has degraded the black community, and their faith in God has uplifted them. â€Å"The recognition that comes from seeing Jesus as Liberator and the Gospel as freedom empowers black men to risk themselves for freedom and for faith. This faith we affirm in the midst of a hostile, disbelieving society†(565-6). Social reform is necessary but inadequate, an... Free Essays on Black Religion Free Essays on Black Religion Essay Response-Black Theology According to Cone, Black theology is representative of the â€Å"historical fight for justice.† Black theology cannot be separated from power and politics. Black theology is what gave Black people the motivation to fight for their future and go against society, politics, and discrimination. â€Å"The term ‘Black Theology’ was created in this social and religious context. It was initially understood as the theological imagination in the struggle of freedom independently of white theologians† (570). Cone defines Black Theology as a â€Å"theology of black liberation†(571). Black Theology is said to have been â€Å"born in the context of the black community as black people were attempting to make sense out of their struggle from freedom†(571). Cone says, â€Å"Black theology can be found in our songs, prayers and sermons†¦it is the black vision of truth, preeminently the certainty that we were created not for slavery but for freedom. It began when white theology degraded black people and it gave them the hope to move on from this. In addition to theological issues, Black Theology provided freedom from white oppressors. Cone says â€Å"We felt the need to explain ourselves and to be understood from our own vantage point and not from the perspectives and experiences of whites†(569). Black theology helped black people to be set free from white racism. While whites used Christianity to give reason for slavery, blacks used it to go against the immorality of slavery. Faith empowered the weak and distraught black community into restoring itself. Society has degraded the black community, and their faith in God has uplifted them. â€Å"The recognition that comes from seeing Jesus as Liberator and the Gospel as freedom empowers black men to risk themselves for freedom and for faith. This faith we affirm in the midst of a hostile, disbelieving society†(565-6). Social reform is necessary but inadequate, an...

Effects of Global Warming on Parks, Recreation and Tourism Essay

Effects of Global Warming on Parks, Recreation and Tourism - Essay Example The irony is that tourism itself is contributing to the very process that threatens it. Tourism relies on cars and buses, air-conditioning and air travel all of which release warm gasses. It accounts for about 5% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions (Rosenthal, 2007). Tourism is significant for the global economy but there is an interrelationship with the climate. Global warming is a challenge for the tourism industry in the mountain areas but it results in the long summer season. This makes it interesting to concentrate on the effect on mountain tourism and then generalize on the overall impact on the tourism industry. Global mean temperature has increased by about 0.6 - 1Â °C over the last 100 years and will increase in the future as well. The temperature would further increase from 1.4 to 5.8Â ° until 2100 (Burki, Elsasser & Abegg, 2003). Global warming will be stronger on the land surface, the northern hemisphere and in winter, which means the summer season would be l onger. In the alpine areas, the financial viability of winter tourism industry depends on skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing. Warmer temperature would affect ski tourism in mountain areas. Swiss glaciers have been steadily losing their surface since 1850 and it is expected that by 2030, 20 to 70% of the glaciers would have disappeared. Not only the mountain aesthetic is lost skiing slopes too are affected. Mountain areas become vulnerable to landslides and the cableway stations become unstable. Fog level would increase which would mean more summer tourism like hiking, trekking or biking. With warmer winters ice fishing would be impossible. Burki, Elsasser, and Abegg, however, contend that the climate change has been exaggerated by the media, science, and politics.

Roe v wade Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Roe v wade - Research Paper Example Conversely, proposition for abortion is most intense in New England. One case in the US attributed to greatly influence abortion was the Roe v. Wade 1973. In this case, the US Supreme Court overruled the trimester framework argument and promoted abortion as a fundamental right. In Roe v. Wade (1973)2 case, the Supreme Court’s decision disallowed numerous states and federal restrictions on abortion and declared it as a fundamental right. The court ruled that abortion should not be allowed in all states where the fetus had the potential to survive outside the mother’s uterus. Consequently, the Supreme Court required that no state denies abortion for women in their first trimester, while abortion was only allowed on grounds of medical conditions during the second and third trimester3. Additionally, only the grounds of protecting the life of the fetus were acceptable for abortion in the third trimester. Upon the Supreme Court’s decision at Roe’s time, numerous states passed severe restrictions on any abortion practices as pro-lifers increasingly contended that life began at conception, thus making abortion unethical murder of acquitted humans. Additionally, other states passed laws that imposed hurdles on all women seeking abortion in defiance with the Roe decision. Defiance of Roe also saw the enactment of the federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act4 by the US government to protect the unborn fetus from being killed and assaulted. According to the US federal constitution, the protection of the unborn resulted in punishment for those intentionally attempting or committing murder of the unborn. A child is also declared as a full member of the Homo sapiens species for being a child in the uterus. Through the promotion of abortion, human life is deemed to be disposable on the basis of the mother’s fundamental rights. Kovnvitz5 reveals that rationally, human life has nothing known as

Race and Ethnicity Essay Example for Free

Race and Ethnicity Essay Until now talk of â€Å"race† and â€Å"ethnicity† still remains a sensitive issue and despite many attempts, discrimination still exists in our modern society. But, on the throes of a multiracial decade, we might be on track to finally understand that race is really a social creation. The website Race: Are We So Different? (http://www. understandingrace. org/home. html) helps shed light into this issue by providing interactive programs, like the Human Variation Quiz, that make it easier for people to understand the â€Å"race issue† in layman’s terms. After taking the quiz, it became clear to me that, yes, race is just embedded in our society and cannot be traced to our genetics or lineage. It gives out facts that correct our idea of what defines race. They tell us that, say, physical qualities that can be attributed to genetics cannot be categorized into the three or four races that people today recognize. Rather, study of our DNA even shows that there might be more genetic differences between two Latin Americans than between a Latin American and a Caucasian American. The documentary Race: The Power of Illusion also shows this when during a DNA workshop, led by forensic expert Scott Bronson, a group of teenagers from different lineages found out that they have more in common with other people from other â€Å"races† than their own. As Peter Wade mentions in his book Race and Ethnicity in Latin America (1997), biologically speaking, race does not exist (Wade 13). It is, therefore, a socially-constructed idea that actually changes with time. Most importantly, the quiz shows that if we track down our DNA to one source it can be traced to a human community that settled in Africa 100,000 years ago, showing that everyone of Earth comes from one community, one people. The problem that we should look into now is how as a society we can change this idea of different races into an understanding of one race. Scholars say that it involves a huge â€Å"paradigm shift†, like how humans began to see the world as round than flat. What I say is, no matter how big it is I believe we are definitely ready.

Sita as the Hidden Hero of Ramayana Essay -- Ramayana Essays

Sita as the Hidden Hero of Ramayana    Valmiki's Ramayana was written around 300 B.C.E. (Carrier 207). Typically, the character of Rama is seen as the hero and the character of Sita is seen as the hero's wife.   In this essay, I will compare Sita's journey of capture and inner growth with the "save the kingdom" journey of Rama, show how the two correlate, and eventually connect in the influential chastity scene. I will also prove that Sita is the "hidden hero" of this epic even though she is seen as taking a secondary role to Rama and show how this reflects women's secondary roles in society today. To begin our comparisons, we must first look at each character and recognize their separate journeys. Through summarization of the characters and their story, we will begin to see Rama's role and Sita's role. By this process, I will demonstrate how they correlate, differ and combine to form the Ramayana. Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, is a god known as Vishnu who has been reincarnated and sent to earth in mortal form. Rama must take an archetypal journey known as the "quest." During the quest, a hero must conquer obstacles to save the kingdom (Guerin et.al.154). Rama's obstacle is Ravana, an evil monster who is slowly taking over heaven and earth. Because Ravana never asked for protection from a human being, he can only be destroyed by a human being and this makes Rama's need for success especially important (Narayan 5). a the beginning of the narrative, Rama is forced into exile from his kingdom into the forest for 14 years. This exile begins his quest. Sita, Rama's wife, is reincarnation of the goddess Lakshmi, Vishnu's spouse in heaven. Sita accompanies Rama into the forest on his "quest" and is captured by Ravana. Th... ...of society. If women want to take control of their own lives and are tired of "proving"themsleves to others, they must first find a voice and then act upon their convictions, otherwise these gender roles will never change. Works Cited Carrier, Warren, ed. Guide to World Literature. Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English, 1980. Guerin, Wilfred L., et.al. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger. Hindu Myths. London: Penguin Books, 1975. Singh, Khushwant. India: an Introduction. New Delhi: Vision Books, 1990. Valmiki. The Ramayana. Trans. Aubrey Menen. New York: Charles Scriber's Sons, 1954. ---. The Ramayana. Trans. R.K. Narayan. New York: Penguin Books, 1972. ---. The Ramayana. Trans. Elizabeth Seeger. New York: William R. Scott, Inc., 1969.

Affirmative Action Doesn’t Work

Introduction I. As once stated by John Kasich, â€Å"Affirmative action has a negative effect on our society when it means counting us like so many beans and dividing us into separate piles. † II. My partner and I stand against the resolution which states: â€Å"Resolved: Affirmative action to promote equal opportunity in the United States is justified. † III. We will show you that Affirmative action to promote opportunity in the United States is justified because Affirmative Action Doesn’t Work, Affirmative Action Stigmatizes Beneficiaries, Affirmative Action is not needed. Body I. Affirmative Action Doesn’t Work A. Affirmative action creates issues in college. Sander, Richard H. â€Å"Affirmative Action Hurts Those It's Supposed to Help. † Triblivenews. com. 2 Jan. 2005. Web. 02 Mar. 2010. . According to Richard Sander, (law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles) â€Å"Traditionally, critics of affirmative action have focused either on its unfairness to those groups that don't receive preferences (usually whites and Asians) or on the inherent conflict between racial preferences and the legal ideal of colorblindness. Over the last few years, however, a new and potentially even more damaging line of inquiry has emerged — the idea that racial preferences may materially harm the very people they intended to benefit†¦ My research over the last two years, using recent data that track more than 30,000 law students and lawyers, has documented even more serious and pervasive mismatch effects in legal education. Elite law schools offer very substantial racial preferences for blacks, Hispanics and American Indians in order to create student bodies that are as racially diverse as their applicant pools. Because these elite schools admit the black students that second-tier law schools would normally admit, second-tier schools, to keep up their minority numbers, also offer big racial preferences. The result is a cascade effect down the law school hierarchy, leaving 80 percent to 90 percent of black students at significantly more selective schools than they would get into strictly on their academic credentials. † B. II. Affirmative Action Stigmatizes Beneficiaries. A. B. Affirmative Action programs stigmatize minorities – studies prove Michelle Wu, senior writer, April 2, 2009, â€Å"Affirmative Action stigmatizes minority students,† Daily Princetonian, http://www. dailyprincetonian. om/2009/04/02/23248/ According to Michelle Wu, senior writer â€Å"Affirmative action may increase academic pressure and stigmatize minority students, according to a study conducted by sociology professor Douglas Massey GS ’78, â€Å"If white students believe that many of their black peers would not be at a college were it not for affirmative action and, more important, if black students perceive whites to believe that, then affirmation action may indeed undermine mino rity-group members’ academic performance by heightening the social stigma they already experience because of race or ethnicity,† Massey and his three collaborators wrote in The Chronicle of Higher Education on March 27. The researchers also presented another detriment of the controversial policy: â€Å"that affirmative action exacerbates the psychological burdens that minority students must carry on campuses. † III. Affirmative Action is not a need A. B. Obama proves affirmative action is no longer necessary Joseph Williams and Matt Negrin, March 18, 2008, â€Å"Affirmative Action foes point to Obama,† Boston Globe, http://www. boston. om/news/nation/articles/2008/03/18/affirmative_action_foes_point_to_obama/ According to Joseph Williams and Matt Negrin, March 18, 2008, staff writers of Boston Globe â€Å"Leading opponents of affirmative action are increasingly seizing on Illinois Senator Barack Obama's historic run for the presidency as proof that race-b ased remedies for past discrimination are no longer necessary. Influential Republicans and a growing number of policy specialists at conservative organizations, including the Goldwater Institute, Project 21, and the Manhattan Institute, are citing the fact that large numbers of white voters are supporting Obama, who leads in the race for Democratic delegates, as evidence that affirmative action has run its course. Ward Connelly, a black conservative who is leading a national effort to ban racial preferences, vowed to use Obama's