Southern accents, Eastern accents, Northern accents and Ebonics

[SWTXBelle]

One thing I would be interested in (that we didn't get into in my classes) is the regional differences in Black Standard English. Surely New Yorkers don't talk like Georgians, no matter their skin colour. So, which is the most important - the region, or the racial/cultural group? Is it the family that determines the dialect, or the peer group?
In my personal experience, children of immigrants seem to be more influenced by their surrounding community. Rarely do you hear the children having the accent of their elders. But within non-immigrant families, I think more of the over-all accent/linguistic standards of the family seem to be apparent in the children. I grew up all over the country, and while I don't have a deep southern accent, there's no doubt where I'm from when I speak.
Anyone have any thoughts?

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

the region, or the racial/cultural group? Is it the family that determines the dialect, or the peer group?

1. With education and occupation controlled for, racial/cultural group matters more than region. Aside from accents and minor differences in phrases used (these differences have been reduced through media exposure to other people and places), sentence structures are extremely similar. Now if we were talking about the Gullah Sea Islands, that would be a different story but even this is a perfect example of "Slave dialect heritage mixed with...other stuff" and there are similarities between Gullah dialect and Ebonics.

2. Family when the person is younger and peer groups as the person ages and (usually) begins to spend more time at school, work, and away from the family. The same as any other learned behavior.

[ForeverRoses]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

In my personal experience, children of immigrants seem to be more influenced by their surrounding community. Rarely do you hear the children having the accent of their elders. But within non-immigrant families, I think more of the over-all accent/linguistic standards of the family seem to be apparent in the children. I grew up all over the country, and while I don't have a deep southern accent, there's no doubt where I'm from when I speak.
Anyone have any thoughts?

I agree with this. I am the daughter of an immigrant, and while my mother has a very thick Bavarian accent (even 40 years later), none of my siblings have a one-- although we can all mimic the Bavarian pronounciation of english words (the th at the end of a word in more like an s, etc.). Interestingly, I spent three years in speech therapy as a child because the school said I didn't pronounce my th, s, and z sounds correctly-- I pronounced them they way my mother did.

I also notice slight regional differences even within the "Midwest" accent.