Re: CHAT: I need help with the concept "New World Spanish"

Quoting David Peterson <DigitalScream@...>:

> It's kind of like having American English vs. British English,
> even though there are tons of British dialects, and distinct
> American dialects.
For me, the more salient difference is North America~Ireland~Scotland
vs.  England~Wales~all other former colonies of Britain.  (Although
nonrhoticness does exist on this side of the Atlantic, and rhoticness
does exist in England/Wales, the traditional dialect majority in each
area is rhoticness here, nonrhoticness there.)

Other isoglosses are easily conceivable as criteria, though.

>  I think what the idea behind NWS is is just like "standard" English,
> which, I've heard, is basically New England English.
I don't think I'd characterize Network English as anything much
like New England.  It's far more similar to the dialects just
north of the Ohio river, and most dialects west of the Mississippi.

> It's what Tom Brokaw and all those news anchors speak.  Even when speaking
> formally, I don't speak this way (I mean, [njuw] as opposed to [nuw]?!  Who
> are these people?),
How often have you heard [nju] in Network English? I can't
recall the last time I have.  (Granted, I don't watch a lot
of television.)

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Thomas Wier
Dept. of Linguistics  "Nihil magis praestandum est quam ne pecorum ritu
University of Chicago sequamur antecedentium gregem, pergentes non qua
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