Questions tagged [prestige-dialect]

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2 votes
2 answers
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Words with multiple allowable pronunciations

Long time listener, first time caller. I was chatting with some friends, and GIF and nuclear came up. GIF is pretty unique, we considered, as we allow both /dʒɪf/ and /gɪf/ for its pronunciation. ...
Bmur's user avatar
  • 21
2 votes
3 answers
2k views

Why are foreign words used in modern vernacular?

Why are seemingly foreign words such as hors d’œuvres, maître d’, garçon, and Gesundheit used in American vernacular?
mreo's user avatar
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10 votes
6 answers
18k views

Is there an American English dialect that sounds as "distingushed" as British English?

Obviously there are a lot of subjective words in the question. There are dialects of British English that don't sound distinguished at all (Cockney). Also, what sounds distinguished is somewhat (...
richard's user avatar
  • 221