Dialects

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Dialects

"Here you are the Top Ten List for the evening. Tonight’s Top Ten, Rejected TV show ideas to replace Seinfeld. If you know what I mean? Ha Ha!" (The Late Show 1998). As a student at Ball State University I come across many different people daily within a term. These individuals come from numerous locations within the state and beyond our identified state boundaries or even regional area of the nation. Considering the vast diversity, the common student will at a majority of the time encounter many different dialects in various conversational situations. These regional standard dialects are all brought together at an institution for higher learning. This leads to issues pertaining to the idea of dialect area and dialect variation involving the factors of Dialectic Region. If these issues exist then would it not be logical that dialect mixing would then be relevant. In this case then the idea of repentance of a certain phrase would then become an incorporation into one’s own dialect after a certain period of exposure. Yet, is this exposure just limited to environment or does the mass technological revolution have a word in otherwise with the television and the music industry.

These questions were the basic motivation for the research I conducted in order to find a better understanding to the issue pertaining to the environment in which I am trying to benefit from higher learning. On the 24th of April in 1998, at Bracken Library I issued a ‘Regional Standard Dialect Questionnaire’. The outcome of the survey was quite interesting and insightful when considering the issue at hand.

The survey consisted of fifty random students entering Bracken Library. These students were split into two basic categories by gender. The two groups answered multiple questions in reference to the notion of, "You hear what I’m saying" and "You know what I mean?". The questions were aimed toward the aspect of usage and knowledge of the sayings themselves. The age range of the participants was between seventeen and twenty-four. Though other age ranges were offered the only area gathered was in the context of traditional undergraduate students.

The males were sufficient in covering all aspects of the survey. The results of the questionnaire are as followed:

52% "You know what I mean?"

8% "You hear what I’m saying?"

36% used both expressions

4% used none of the above

From these results the aspect of regional dialect was examined.

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