Language Investigation Number One- Language Communities

Over the past few months, I have become good friends with a girl named Jessica, who recently moved to Colorado from Alabama. Meeting Jessica has made me examine my own use of language, and a Coloradoan use of language, as opposed to Jessica’s southern use of language. Our accents, common phrases, and use of language are different in many ways.
We don’t typically think of having an accent in Colorado. However, many people who live in Colorado are from more Midwestern states (like Iowa and Nebraska) or have families from Midwestern states, which has definitely given many of us an accent. One simple difference that I have noticed is our pronunciation of the letter “o.” People with Midwestern roots tend to pronounce an “o” similarly to an “a” if it is in the middle of a word. For instance, Coloradoans pronounce the word Colorado like “Col-a-rad-o” rather than “Col-ah-rah-do.” I catch myself saying “Mahm” instead of “Mom.” Another slight difference is that Midwesterners tend to say “prolly” or “pry” instead of actually pronouncing the word “probably.” Our accents struck me more after they were pointed out by Jessica, a southerner. I notice hers a lot: for instance she says “code” instead of “cold,” and “y’all” instead of “you all.” The accent of Coloradoans and Midwesterners may be slight as compared to Southerners, but I think that it shows a sense of pride in where we come from. We live in a society where people move often, and having an accent is not only a natural result of learning to speak in a certain region, but shows that we have roots and care about our families and communities.
In my group of friends there are certain words or phrases that we use that are somewhat specific to this region and to our specific group. I feel that originality in terms of language choices is really valued by our group of friends, and we are always calling each other different names or using different kinds of phrasing. It really struck Jessica’s attention that the girls in our group tend to call each other “lady” or “woman,” and we often call the boys “sir” or “boy.” It is just a joking way to refer to each other as something other than “dude,” or other words like that.
Everyone in my family is highly educated, and so even if we aren’t necessarily using really sophisticated vocabulary, we talk about interesting subjects. I am an English major, my Dad used to be an English teacher, both of my parents are in book groups, and my sister loves to read, and so it is very common for us to talk about and analyze books together. It is very important in my family to be able to hold a good discussion.
There are three main language groups that I consider myself a part of: my family, my friends, and the larger community of Colorado. To be a part of those groups I have to be able to hold a good discussion, value originality in language, and have a slight Midwestern accent. I could never understand why Jessica always wants to lose her Southern accent, but now I understand that it is because she wants to be a part of the new language community that she has entered.