Pitzer in the News 2008-2009 Academic Year

Professor Carmen Fought quoted in Hartford Courant and Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

Professor of Linguistics Carmen Fought was quoted in the September 23, 2008 edition of the Hartford Courant about regional accents and dialects, specifically the accent of Alaska governor and Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

Fought was also quoted in the September 25, 2008 edition of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in an article about the increase of Spanish speaking residents in San Bernardino County. Four of every 10 San Bernardino County residents speak a language other than English at home. Spanish is preferred at home by one-third of the county's 1.8 million people ages 5 and older, according to information released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Excerpt
Where Y'All From?
Perhaps A Closer Listen Will Give It Away
By WILLIAM WEIR | Courant Staff Writer
September 23, 2008

When the public first heard Sarah Palin speak, one of the first questions that arose was: Really? That's an Alaskan accent? . . .

We speak like those with whom we most identify, says Carmen Fought, who teaches at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif.

That means young people talk more like their classmates than their parents, or news anchors for that matter. And if you're not happy with your hometown — you were raised in rural Maine, but are a city dweller at heart — there's a chance you'll have less of an accent than your neighbors.

"Those who are really oriented toward getting out of Dodge — those people will tend to lose features and move toward a standard, more unmarked dialect," Fought says. "Mostly, it's not conscious."

Fought says people are more aware of their own accent if there's a social prejudice against it, like the Southern drawl.

So what Palin's accent? Her family moved to Alaska from Idaho shortly after she was born, so her speech should be fully Alaskan-formed. Weinberger says it has a North Dakotan flavor, and he speculates that she's exaggerating her Midwestern roots so people associate her with Marge, the pregnant heroine of "Fargo" who solves everything.

Fought thinks Palin's twang sounds more Minnesotan. Either one makes sense, she says, since they're both styles of Northern speech, and it's reasonable that Alaska would have some of those features.

For the full feature in the Hartford Courant, click here.

Excerpt
More SB County residents speaking Spanish
Stephen Wall, Staff Writer,
Article Created: 09/25/2008

Four of every 10 San Bernardino County residents speak a language other than English at home.

Spanish is preferred at home by one-third of the county's 1.8million people ages 5 and older, according to information released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Critics see the increasing use of Spanish as a troubling development . . .

But Flores pointed to a study by the Pew Hispanic Center last year that showed 88 percent of U.S.-born adult children of Latino immigrants speak English very well.

"Their dominant language is definitely going to be English by the third generation,'' said Carmen Fought, a professor of linguistics at Pitzer College in Claremont.

Fought said it doesn't matter how many people speak Spanish.

"English is still the language of power in this country. It's dominant in every aspect of society,'' Fought said.

For the full article in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, click here.