Re: My version

--- On Thu, 2/19/09, tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

> From: tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...>
> Subject: [tied] Re: My version
> To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009, 8:43 PM
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister
> <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --- On Thu, 2/19/09, Francesco Brighenti
> <frabrig@...> wrote:
> >
> > > From: Francesco Brighenti <frabrig@...>
> > > Subject: [tied] Re: My version
> > > To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> > > Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009, 8:49 AM
> > > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com,
> "tgpedersen"
> > > <tgpedersen@> wrote:
> > >
> > > > AFAIK American English has three main
> dialect groups, New
> > > > England, Southern and Standard. On a map,
> Standard looks like
> > > > it fanned out of New York, like smoke from a
> smokestack, with
> > > > the two other dialects on the side, with the
> old British
> > > > colonial centers Boston and Virginia,
> emphasizing the role of
> > > > those ports as entry points for later (New
> York) and early
> > > > immigration. New York was originally Dutch
> speaking. Those are
> > > > the sociological facts. There is no way that
> would not have
> > > > influenced the phonology of Standard
> American. AFAIK no one
> > > > ever looked at the question from this angle.
> > >
> > The problem is that Philadephia was the main entry
> point during
> > colonial times.
>
> But I'm talking post-revolutionary time, where (before
> the Irish
> arrived) low New York would have been the only
> single-substrated
> dialect to pick to set yourself apart from the British
> English of the
> people you just liberated yourself from.
>
>
> Torsten
>
> The Dutch settlers in NY stayed there while the Scots,
> Scots-Irish,
> Welsh and German who arrived in Philadelphia spread out in
> a V across
> the US
> >

But people who landed in NYC tended to stay there --at least more than other places. That's why the Potato Famine Irish tended to stay on the East Coast. Germans who arrived at the same time tended to go straight to the Midwest.