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Originally Posted by OBCT
Do they? What group/region/demographic does not mispronounce words?
Going beyond what is considered "proper", I've always wondered which regional English dialect/accent was most intelligible for other English speakers.
I actually recall seeing a PBS program on this topic that (I believe) concluded, very broadly, that Nebraska and Alberta speakers (generally midwest/prairies regions?) had the "least" accented speech patterns which made them the most intelligible, but I can't find any evidence to back that up on a quick Google search.
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Pretty much any region outside of the 'home' of the language mispronounces many words. Don't get me wrong, I don't even think that's a bad thing, it's just that the concept of "we talk right, they talk wrong" had been put forward. How is the way that we sound speaking English any better than the way an American or Australian does? Any are different than how the English speak English.
It's an interesting point about what region's English is most intelligible, and I'll bet that your recollection of the PBS program is correct. The thing I'd be interested in is to whom? Probably North Americans. I'll be that the English don't find it as understandable. That said, over the last decade American TV has become very prevalent in other English-speaking countries (like this one, thank god), so it goes to follow that the standard US television accent (I swear there is one, nearly every actor has the same accent) is likely most easily deciphered across other dialects.
As an aside, over the years I've noticed rural Ontarians' accent changing to become more and more American. My family and I had the same accent twenty years ago, today they're quite different. I blame CMT.
My thoughts on the matter stem from being an ex-pat in a country which is similar to my home (Canada) in its British roots and historical timeline. When I moved here, I'd often think "wow, the way they say that is wrong". Eventually, I started comparing how an Aussie, a Canadian, and a pom (sorry, Brit) would say something, given that our languages descended from the Brit's. All three are different, all three are right in their own realm, but really, neither Aussies nor hosers speak in a way that is very true to the language that ours are descended from. Because of that, how is the way that a Canadian speaks any more correct than how anyone else speaks English?