Synopsis Of The Film 'American Tongues'
Film Response #1
“American Tongues”
Synopsis: The video American Tongues is a documentary, illustrating the aspects of geographical linguistics within the United States. A dialect or an accent means the words we use and how we pronounce them, and in this case the language is American English. Variations of English that result in local dialects are discussed, reasons for dialect differences are given, and attitudes about dialects are shown in the video. There are several ways that dialects form from "standard" languages. First there is accent or the way the language is pronounced. Second there is vocabulary and the different words used to describe the same item or activity. The documentary goes from the streets to the countryside; from the streets of Boston to Louisiana teenagers, from Texas cowboys to New York professionals. Overall, the movie focuses on the way people perceive others with different accents. …show more content…
People might not like someone because of their accent therefore people are quick to pass judgment. They also make judgments about a specific area due to their accents. The movie gives examples of how this is true. People from the south are probably considered to be uneducated by "northerners". This has to do with the fact that the emphasis is more on agriculture than it is on the north; therefore, there is less need for education. This is where the stereotype comes from that southerners are uneducated. People are prejudice against southern accents because they feel that their accent equals ignorance and racism. In my opinion it is ignorant and naive to judge people by their accents because one cannot judge character by something that is not in our
“American Tongues”
Synopsis: The video American Tongues is a documentary, illustrating the aspects of geographical linguistics within the United States. A dialect or an accent means the words we use and how we pronounce them, and in this case the language is American English. Variations of English that result in local dialects are discussed, reasons for dialect differences are given, and attitudes about dialects are shown in the video. There are several ways that dialects form from "standard" languages. First there is accent or the way the language is pronounced. Second there is vocabulary and the different words used to describe the same item or activity. The documentary goes from the streets to the countryside; from the streets of Boston to Louisiana teenagers, from Texas cowboys to New York professionals. Overall, the movie focuses on the way people perceive others with different accents. …show more content…
People might not like someone because of their accent therefore people are quick to pass judgment. They also make judgments about a specific area due to their accents. The movie gives examples of how this is true. People from the south are probably considered to be uneducated by "northerners". This has to do with the fact that the emphasis is more on agriculture than it is on the north; therefore, there is less need for education. This is where the stereotype comes from that southerners are uneducated. People are prejudice against southern accents because they feel that their accent equals ignorance and racism. In my opinion it is ignorant and naive to judge people by their accents because one cannot judge character by something that is not in our