I have lived in 5 different U.S. cities at some point in my life: Cleveland and Cincinnati Ohio, Athens (Georgia), Miami Florida, and now Greenville. While I’ve lived in all these different cities, I have only lived in 2 distinct regions of the U.S. – the Midwest and the South. I remember moving to Athens, Georgia at the age of 9, from Cincinnati, and being shocked at my teacher’s request to use Sir and Ma’am in class, and hearing ‘y’all’ instead of ‘you all’ or ‘you guys’. Within my own country I was experiencing a mild form of culture shock and even to this day Sir and Ma’am do not quite sit well on my tongue (although I use y’all frequently these days).

While the American English accent outside of the United States is widely categorized as ‘American’, inside the U.S., we know better.  In the South, some claim to know even what state you’re from just by your accent (New Orleans natives, for example, have a distinctly different accent than a South Georgia speaker). There are the more famous accents, which are often portrayed in movies, such as the New York, Boston, or Chicago accents, but even these are only representative of a particular city.

An accent is simply a way of pronouncing words. A dialect, on the other hand, refers to differences in accent, grammar and vocabulary among different versions of a language. So while someone from New York or Boston might sound a specific way, the words and grammar the New England region use is actually referred to as a dialect. Confusing? The video above points to seven distinct dialect regions in the U.S.

PBS  investigates the difficulty of identifying how many dialects actually exist in the U.S. ‘Social scientists estimate the number of U.S. dialects range from a basic three – New England, Southern and Western/General America – to 24 or more.’

Besides regional accents, there are also accents in the U.S. which are cultural, retaining some of the linguistic and and cultural  traditions from their native country. When I lived in Miami, I noticed the native Miami dwellers had a distinct English accent which could not be categorized neatly, nor could it be included in the overarching ‘Southern’ accent, despite Miami’s location on the map (which seems to be on par with many claims that South Florida is not actually ‘the South’).

The Miami accent is but one example of a large historical migrant community retaining many of their  linguistic and cultural traditions to form a new accent group within the U.S. Spanglish might be another term for this. It is widely recognized and talked about in the U.S., but does not fit a region. Instead, it represents a (relatively) new hybrid cultural group. NPR gives an excellent account of the importance of Spanglish in the U.S.

Now, see if you can pick out your accent group on this map below.

This blog was written by a language nerd for language nerds everywhere.

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Name: Fabrizio

What are the subjects you teach for Wetzel Languages? German, Italian, ICT

When did you start teaching for Wetzel Languages? September 2011

What sparked your interest in teaching and languages, or what do you find rewarding about it? I have been fascinated by languages since I was a child growing up in Switzerland. This tiny piece of real estate manages to run four official languages; three of which are officially taught at one point between grade and high school.

Can you give us a 2-3 sentence bio of yourself? I was raised in the German speaking part of Switzerland by my Italian parents. French, English, and Spanish became additional languages that I learned early on in school first and by living abroad later. After graduating from college with a degree in engineering, I worked for many years within the food industry and was able to put the acquired language skills to good use for my job.

It was later in life that I decided to go for a second career: in North America I obtained a certification for Teaching English as a Second Language as well as a Masters Degree in English. Currently I live in the Greenville area with my wife and 2-year old son because I am working on the completion of a doctoral degree in Theology.

Where is the most interesting place you have visited and why? There is not one single place that I perceive as having been the most interesting for me. There is, however, something that many places I have visited had in common: the people, their hopes, their troubles, and the way they dealt with hardship in life. So, it would always boil down to individuals, their character and heart which affected me the most. For instance, I felt incredibly privileged to have made the acquaintance of a shoe polisher in the favelas of Lima, Peru who’s faith bore him up and gave him strength despite his desperate condition.

Similarly, I was incredibly inspired by a blind old lady tucked away in an anonymous skyscraper in Turin, Italy. She never felt alone because her relationship with God gave her strength and joy. And again, it was humbling to experience the friendship of a poor family in Romania who offered sacrificially from the little they had to host a few of us who had visited them from the West since the Communist regime had crumbled in 1989. In other words, places become interesting for me not because of their landscape or the beauty of nature, but primarily because of the character of its people.

Other than teaching, what are some of your other interests or hobbies? Playing soccer with my two-year old son, studying God’s Word and all of His Creation, traveling.

What is your favorite book or movie and why? It would be hands down the Bible. It’s message is radically riveting and simply peerless. No other book has had such a transforming impact on my life.

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Thank you Fabrizio for sharing a part of your story with us! To read more about Fabrizio and his role as one of our ICT trainers, visit our Intercultural Trainers Page.

We are planning an afternoon out in the park to play, hang out and catch up. So bring the kids (or not), a blanket, and some snacks and join us!

Where: Playground at Cleveland Park (by Greenville Zoo)
When: Thursday, 5/3 at 3:30

If it rains, we’ll find some other time to get together.

Hope to see you there!
Barbara and Jasper