04-07-2005, 07:11 AM
Ok guys, here's the list I promised from Mario Pei's book "The Story of Language". By the way, Dr. Pei is a renowned linguist.
He says "The following list of words, pronouned by an American speaker and listened to by an expert, usually suffices to place the speaker within 20 miles of his home locality:"
merry
marry
Mary
wash
water
Washington
on
off
dog
oft
lot
log
sorry
about the house
greasy
father
park
part
first
bird
can (verb)
can (noun)
ash
ask
Dr. Pei goes on to say: Each of the above groups of words places the speaker east or west, or north or south, of a certain line, until he is restricted to a given small area. "Greazy" would place him south of Philadelphia, while "greassy" would place him north of Trenton --- Dr. Pei's chapter on Dialects goes on in great detail.
Although we're not all experts, just for fun, try the above list on some native American friends who are not from your home area.
*****
He says "The following list of words, pronouned by an American speaker and listened to by an expert, usually suffices to place the speaker within 20 miles of his home locality:"
merry
marry
Mary
wash
water
Washington
on
off
dog
oft
lot
log
sorry
about the house
greasy
father
park
part
first
bird
can (verb)
can (noun)
ash
ask
Dr. Pei goes on to say: Each of the above groups of words places the speaker east or west, or north or south, of a certain line, until he is restricted to a given small area. "Greazy" would place him south of Philadelphia, while "greassy" would place him north of Trenton --- Dr. Pei's chapter on Dialects goes on in great detail.
Although we're not all experts, just for fun, try the above list on some native American friends who are not from your home area.
*****