For now, American, British, Australian, and other dialects of English are all distinct due to centuries of separation. Now, it is possible for near instant communication between anywhere in the world. Do you see this as causing dialects to fade away eventually? If yes, how long do you think it will take?
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It’s already happened *substantially*. Regional dialects were much different before Hollywood started exporting mass media in the 1910s.
The thing is, it works kind of like the grasshopper who jumps halfway to the wall with every jump. Two jumps and you’re 75% of the way there; a million jumps and you’re still not quiiiiite there.
There will probably always be *some* regional dialects – they’ll just get rarer and rarer and confined to families that have kept themselves more isolated from mainstream culture.
It’s possible. Language evolves. The presence and influence of American media around the world is also undeniable and does not appear to be slowing down at all. I have noticed an increase in americanisms around the world, notably among young people, but I don’t think it’s so dramatic that it’s causing other dialects of English to completely fade out. If anything, they’re just incorporating americanisms into their dialect.
I have noticed that — on reddit anyway — you will find British complaining about Americanisms working their way into British English, but I’ve never heard of Americans complaining about the reverse.
I’m not sure to what extent this actually happens anyway.
I don’t see a complete fading of dialects — people value that uniqueness too much and resist homogenization.
It will happen *some* though. It already has. I’ve not studied it in any detail but the term “cool” to describe something likeably novel, hip, or clever, seems to have spread around the globe, and I am pretty sure that’s from American black vernacular (it’s a great word, too. I wonder how many language have terms that correspond to it perfectly.)
Depending on which “experts” you ask, you’ll get one of three answers.
1: Yes, distinct accents/dialects are dying out.
2: No, they aren’t dying out, they’re just evolving.
3: No, they’re not dying out. In fact, they’re getting even stronger.
Not really. In my state the general majority still don’t really care about the outside world. The hard southern accent isn’t going away any time soon, and as a matter of fact, its getting much worse. Heck, 9/10 people I grew up with still don’t know proper grammar or spelling.
Dialects eventually change over time that that dialect of today will not be the same even 10 years from now. It’s inevitable.
The world will never communicate as one entirely because of regional slang and language. Even if today everyone spoke English, give it 50 years and enough new slang and regional dialect will make several new accents and languages around the world.
I think it’s definitely possible. Some American terms and pronunciations have slowly been creeping into the lexicon of the UK and presumably that of Australia as well. However, it’s very hard to say how long it could take for these dialects to disappear entirely, if they do at all.
A disappearance of English dialects would also likely require a good deal of intermixing of anglophonic peoples. For example, regional dialects and accents here in the states have become somewhat endangered over the last century, but this due, in large part, to the fact that Americans are more likely to travel or relocate to other parts of the nation, losing the accent of their origin region and diluting the accent of their new region.
Language changes and always will. Who knows what will happen exactly. American dominance won’t last forever because nothing does. You don’t hear people complaining about French terms in English, even though a huge chunk of English vocabulary is of French origin. Of course, a lot of that was from 1000 years ago so it just seems like English now. The French get in a tizzy over English words coming into French but I doubt it’s approaching anywhere near the 30% figure I read for French terms in English (in an 80,000 word dictionary). And people don’t even complain about modern French terms either. It’s just life in English.
The bottom line is you will be assimilated by history and there’s nothing you can do about it. And it will seem normal to your children as the way things have “always” been.
This is probably better suited to r/asklinguistics.
It was posted there once and the consensus was “it’s too early to tell. Maybe”.
I don’t think American English will disappear; quite the opposite, I think it’s going to be more prevalent. US culture continues to permeate through film, music, social media, tech companies, etc. Slang from the US gets used in a lot of English speaking countries already, I don’t think that’s gonna slow down anytime soon. If any dialect is gonna be present in the future, I would bet money it’ll be American, even if it slightly changes
I’ve noticed it just in the last 15 years in America with regional dialects. The Southern dialect is still strong but even that is getting subtler.
The northeast and Midwest especially I feel like have lost a LOT of their dialect and accent though.
I’ve even seen video of friends and family from my teenage years (in my 30’s now) and we all had accents that we no longer have. If you were to meet me on the street you might be able to figure out Mid-Atlantic but probably not Philly suburbs. No one I’ve met in the South can quite seem to guess exactly where I’m from, just that I’m not from around here lol.
West Indian folk nah gon stop speaking patois
I see tons of streamers imitating the “California/youtuber” accent in all their videos. I think its the opposite, especially with American continuously being a major hub of entertainment.
Not for English, English is interesting because it morphs so quickly that any tendency for homogeneity is quickly overtaken by new speakers.
Let me explain, right now there is a distinct European English (Euro English) that formed *after* the English dominated mass media was formed. Additionally, since English is spoken by a huge number of speakers in India, Africa, and China, new dialect patterns are forming as we speak. English is a remarkable language in that when it changes it is still generally mutually intelligible. Picardy and French aren’t realistically mutually intelligible, that really doesn’t happen as easily in English. Because our grammar is so dependent on the SVO construction, provided you put the words in the right place, if you use foreign words with English syntax it will make sense if the English speaking party knows what the words mean. The result of this is there isn’t as much of a pressure for English homogeneity. I can travel to Nigeria and understand their distinct form of English. There isn’t a real need for either of us to pidgin, neither of us need to modify our English too much.
As long as there are significant numbers of English speakers for whom English is a secondary language we will continue to have a very diverse but mutually intelligible group of regional dialects.
If anything, I’ve seen a galvanization of regional accents as people with those accents have gained wider access to the mainstream culture via tiktok and can hit back against the idea that regional accents or dialects are “uneducated” and such. I could also foresee the pushback against social media and movements like the homesteading movements eventually evolving into a significant amount of the population that limits their internet usage, meaning spending more time with the people around them who may have regional accents. And this is a phenomenon that happens so slowly it’s impossible to predict anyway
I don’t think it will ever go away completely. While I think we have already moved in this direction, I don’t see it ever completely ending. Even in America alone, there are so many different dialects. But southern ascents are becoming less and less common, or at least less intense, in the south. Though look at somewhere like Australia. They’re always going to hear Australians talk way more than Americans or Europeans. I just can’t see it going away.
American movies, tv, music and social media are the most popular in the world so maybe everyone will adopt our accents. One of the coolest things about America tho is all the different accents within it, for my job I talk to people all over the country and the ranges from the east coast to south west to mid west to west coast and of course the Deep South is really cool.
It depends if the people who use the dialects are now talking to each other on a regular basis. Just because the internet enables someone from australia to talk to someone from England, doesnt mean they will. But if that intermixing is happening, then that could prevent them from fully diverging.
In some ways, but not in others. Consuming the same media tends to make people more homogeneous. But some parts of the world cultivate their unique culture.
The area I’m visiting right now has so many sayings and ways of putting things that are unique to the American south. The people take pride in their yes ma’ams and no sirs. They have no shame in using fixing to, or used to could. It’s not class or color dependent either, well off and educated people of all colors say fixing to and a lot of other things that northerners complain about as bad grammar, low class or “ethnic”.
In the north I would often hear “Mr Smith is my father, I’m joe” or “do I look like a ma’am?” Here even children are often Mr or Miss.
I really enjoy the differences.
I doubt they’ll ever disappear. Most people here in the UK speak to other Brits far more often than they speak to the Americans that they know almost exclusively on the internet. Yes, we’re exposed to Hollywood movies and US TV shows a lot more than our mothers and fathers might have been, but we still speak British English with our own accents. At most some American words might be used here and there, like ‘cool’ or ‘dude’.
I grew up with Rupert, the wiggles (they are Australian but still) Harry potter, Chronicals of Narnia and can understand British pretty good My dad sometimes complains about British movies and how he can’t understand them.
Hope not.
I grew up on the coast of NC where a very interesting dialect called coastal brogue was spoken. Just in my 20 or so yrs down there, it was noticeably deteriorating. You basically have to find very old people to hear it now.
No, they will get more as more different cultures adopt it.
Dialects or accents?
People are incorporating more words and phrases from other countries and cultures, globally speaking and have for a while. But that has always been a thing too. Trade routes, etc. Travel.
Recently I was watching International House Hunters, and there was a couple moving from Dubai to London. The husband was originally from London, and the wife was from Dubai. Both appeared to be of Indian background. While the husband had a distinct English accent, I was surprised that the wife’s English almost sounded more American than English. I wouldn’t have thought such would have been the case.
I think internal migration between cities in the US is really diluting regional accents. It’s most noticeable talking to people from more remote areas vs the city in the same region.
The Brits and Australians will become more Americanized. The Canadians are already almost indistinguishable from Americans.
It’s already happening. Back in the day, midwesterners used to say pop, but younger generations have stopped using it more often. I’m one of the people who call it pop, but as a dialectal saying, it’s becoming rarer. Same as across all the U.S. really.
There may be some homogenization of dialects, but with millions of people learning English and English becoming a lingua franca in Europe and much of Australasia, new dialects will replace any that disappear.
i’ve noticed that with the rise of aave being used as internet slang that a lot of southern stuff is more widely known because we have some of the same phrases.
i recently found out that “fixin to” is a southern thing but i just thought everyone said it. and now with aave on the internet “finna” became more widely used. just an anecdotal observation
British yes. The rest are fine