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A New Accent Is Developing in Southwest Kansas

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141–150 of 159 posts

Re: A New Accent Is Developing in Southwest Kansas

#142
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and I 100% thought that me and my friends did not have an accent of any kind whatsoever I suspect everyone thinks that. It's all those people from other parts of the world/country that have accents. :)

I'm 37 and I'm still perplexed that it rains some places in the summer.

It's funny you mention this, I'm 37 and just visited Las Vegas for the first time recently ... as a Floridian, I never fathomed that air could be _that dry_.

Re: A New Accent Is Developing in Southwest Kansas

#143
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We also have the term Hispanic to refer to folks from Latin America Not quite. Brazil is in Latin America, but Brazilians are not Hispanic.

Thank you for the correction! I had always thought Hispanic / Latino / Latina were interchangeable. This whole time I thought the Latin* descriptors just meant something along the lines of "native Spanish speaker of the Western Hemisphere."

As a side note, most of Spain itself is in the Western Hemisphere.

Re: A New Accent Is Developing in Southwest Kansas

#144
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what the argument of the people who downvoted you would be?

Saying "LOL... it makes no sense" about the label self-applied by people in a culture you aren't familiar with doesn't add anything to the conversation, and it comes across as rude and dismissive. You don't need to type everything that comes into your head into Hacker News.

We are not talking about self-applied labels, since parent explicitly says "are referred to as".

So I think it is a very valid point to wonder why some regions came to be referred to (in american english) as latin america, where others that would in principle fit the logical criteria didn't.

I agree it could be put in a more constructive way, but yourself assuming they are not familiar with a particular culture just because you don't like their comment is what actually comes across as rude and dismissive to me.

Re: A New Accent Is Developing in Southwest Kansas

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Portuguese actually edges out Spanish in terms of European languages in South America We're not in South America, though. In the context of this article, we're talking about a town in the USA with a large number of immigrants from Latin America as a whole, most of whom are Hispanic and comparatively few of whom are Brazilian.

This subthread is an aside on the term "Latinx" in general, outside the context of this article. I'm specifically responding to the meme described by the GP, which ostensibly was not created in response to this article but to address general usage of the term "Latinx".

> but to address general usage of the term "Latinx"

Which, again, in English, is usually used when discussing immigrants, most of whom are Hispanic.

Re: A New Accent Is Developing in Southwest Kansas

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I live in Rhode Island, the smallest state I the US and we have multiple distinct accents that are clear to those who grow up here. Even from adjacent towns! Many people in RI down even travel within the state very far.

I've spent a lot of time in RI myself. Can you say more about the differences you have in mind? All I can think of is Cranston vs. elsewhere.

Well I’ve noticed the accents mostly with people who’s family have been here for at least a few generations. Cranston acccent is quite different than providence even though they are adjacent. Johnston also has a similar accent to Cranston but a little different still to an acute ear. I don’t know how to really describe them in words.

I’ve also noticed quite bit of difference in accent by age group. For example, my grandmother is from providence and is 92. She pronounces “bottle” as “baw’ull”. Many of her friends around her age speak similarly.

My wife’s family is from south shore MA, about 30 minutes from providence. Their accent is way different too (and different from Boston). They pronounce “bath” as “bawth” (almost British) but Boston says “Baath”.

Re: A New Accent Is Developing in Southwest Kansas

#147
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and I 100% thought that me and my friends did not have an accent of any kind whatsoever I suspect everyone thinks that. It's all those people from other parts of the world/country that have accents. :)

I'm 37 and I'm still perplexed that it rains some places in the summer.

In in California and I'm perplexed that it even rains here anymore...

Re: A New Accent Is Developing in Southwest Kansas

#149
post #139

> “But we would find them not only among the Latinx youth but also among many of the white youth as well. It seems like these variants—because Liberal is now a Latinx-majority community—are just becoming the way this community sounds.” People actually use "Latinx"? Up until now I'd only seen that in discussions about it.

I was surprised to see that as well. I thought it was for particular group, not as a replacement for 'Latinos'. Similar to people getting upset at using "guys" which the dictionary defines as referencing all genders, and only male when used as "guy". Latinos makes perfect common sense in the same way. This seems like a bit of activism by the author rather than entirely necessary, especially considering it links to an…

Is using "guys" not plainly kind of dumb though? Once someone pointed it out to me, I can't help but feel foolish using it to describe a group of women.

Conversely, if you call a group of men "ladies" you're being playfully derisive...

Re: A New Accent Is Developing in Southwest Kansas

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This subthread is an aside on the term "Latinx" in general, outside the context of this article. I'm specifically responding to the meme described by the GP, which ostensibly was not created in response to this article but to address general usage of the term "Latinx".

> but to address general usage of the term "Latinx" Which, again, in English, is usually used when discussing immigrants, most of whom are Hispanic.

It sometimes refers to people who happen to be immigrants, but it's not often used in the context of a discussion involving immigration. Broadly, it refers to people and culture originating in Latin America. Many people use it to self-identify.
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