Map of the diversity of spoken language in America

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This video is an excellent illustration of the linguistic fact that even if we live in the same country and speak the same language, we need to be aware of existing nuances of spoken language. The reason behind is that we use different terms to communicate the same message due to living in a certain geographical area. It is closely connected with the existence of tremendous numbers of both regional dialects and slangs which are used among some groups of people of the same age or profession. It seems that the place where you actually live determines the way you speak. Dwellers of a particular place use some specific terms which are only comprehensible for them and  may emphasise different things than people from other regions.
Thanks to this video, you can see how Americans pronounce some words differently and which terms they use to transfer their message depending on which part of America  they live in. This video is based on the Harvard Dialect Survey which was made by Bert Waux, who is a former Harvard professor. He was responsible for conducting the survey in which people across America are asked to say how to name a concrete thing, like for example “pecan”. According to the data of the aforementioned survey, he proved that American people have a vast expanse of vocabulary and various manners of saying even very simple, everyday words. In this video you can both see a map and listen to terms  coming from all across America.

Let’s check this video:

Source:

Mapping How Americans Talk

Written by

Aleksandra Święcicka. Journalist, web editor and social media expert. Communication Trainee at TermCoord