This very idea occured to me when I brought it up.
It seems like you’re making some assumptions about dialects, accents, and which ones have what elements.
I suspect what is happening is that these people are speaking as they naturally do, which means that, by definition, they are speaking in their own dialect. On last decades, they might have been trained out of that dialect before they got on air. But, as some posters have pointed out above, there may be multiple reasons why that is no longer happening.
Indeed the precisely trained broadcast accent and dialect—which you seem to assume defines general American—might not ever have represented a majority of the population.
Might could be.
Heard one on an NPR story this morning that made my ears bleed - adding “super-” to an already acceptable word. Something in the story was “super-difficult”, and people were “super-worried”. Difficult and worried don’t describe it adequately enough? And from an NPR reporter?
I agree this is probably true, and as much as I advocate the idea of standard grammar and pronunciation, even I have had my nonstandard pronunciation of one word pointed out to me-- one time by a non-native speaker, yet. When I say the word I’m it comes out “Ahm”, like everyone else in my family, but everything else is pretty much standard.
There is practical value in having a standard version of a language. If we decide that all variants if grammar, semantics, usage, and even spelling (because, hey why not?)a are equally acceptable, then the language would eventually wind up about where it was 1300 years ago, when there was no standard, and the scribes and monks of one region would use a dialect and orthography that seemed right to their part of the country, but didn’t work elsewhere. This is not too different from conditions in Germany at the same time. Today, German still has many dialects, many of which are thriving, but AFAI can tell everyone agrees on what the standard should be, and that it should be used in public discourse.
Today’s example: I heard a host on MSNBC say “verdick” for “verdict”.
- Even a standardized dialect evolves over time. 2. The examples you are offering don’t interfere with the existence of a standardized dialect.
Both people and language are far more flexible than you seem to be implying and human communication doesn’t require such strict rules in order to work.
I’m all for people having pet peeves. I’ve posted several in this thread. But to dress it up under some kind of principled stand for humanity is something we no longer should be tolerant of.
As much as I adore my idealized concept of beautiful language, I have no illusion that it will outlive me. Indeed, it’s probably long dead already.
I think you meant to say “…is something of which we no longer should be tolerant.”
Prescriptivism is a thing up with which we shall not put.
In my lifetime, I’ve noticed the Southernism “y’all” spread across the rest of the country, to the extent that I would not be surprised if it eventually became the standard second person plural pronoun in American English. (The other most likely candidate being “you guys”).
Which makes sense to me, as “y’all” is a perfectly cromulent contraction of “you all” and completely in accord with the rules of English grammar. As I’ve ranted about repeatedly.
And I’m using the term standardized dialect intentionally. There’s a common belief that standard = the real language and everything else is just a dialect.
That’s not the case, Standard English is a dialect of English, the same as Appalachian English or AAVE is a dialect of English. It is a dialect that has been standardized and has been given prestige status. Thus, a standardized dialect is also often a prestige dialect.
Why do people think a website URL has a backslash? I’ve heard many many instances of spoken “dope dot com backslash pit” or the like. And to counteract this, now many are specifically saying “forward slash” when just “slash” should be sufficient.
I’ve noticed this going back 20 years or more. At some point in the 1980s or 1990s, people got used to hearing “backslash” when around computers (thank you, DOS) and they just started calling everything backslashes when dealing with computer stuff.
I’m good with “forward slash” because at least it indicates that the person knows that there is a difference.
Exactly. When talking about computers and file paths, unless you know you’re talking to a real techie, “slash” has become ambiguous. So if you want to speak unambiguously, it’s gotta be “forward slash” or “backslash”.
The modern defintions of ‘hack’:
'to write computer programs for enjoyment” and “bringing about a solution”.
Preferring the older ones:
“to cut or chop something with short strong blows”, or informally used to mean “tolerate”.
/lawnchaired
It is pretty bizarre, because in unixy language, which is the fundamental language of the 'net, backslash is the “escape” character, as in \n is the “newline” character ( return + linefeed ), but urls use a completely different “escape” protocol (the equivalent of “\n” would be “%13”, IIUC – LF would be implied).
It is all so confusing.
I’m not surprised. Another word frequently (and irritatingly) mispronounced on the news channels: pundit. More and more people seem to believe that “pundent” (or “pundunt”) is the actual word.
I suppose it might have come about via analogy with the word “pendant.” But however it arose, it’s fingernails-on-a-chalkboard for me!
I also cringe at “pundent”! And would it be possible to get some kind of agreement on Qatar? I hear a lot of “CUTTer”(rhymes with butter) and then there’s “ka-TAHRRRRR” with a really gutteral K and R!
It’s going to be difficult because almost none of the sounds in the word exist in standard American. I for one don’t really see a need to force everyone to agree on a single pronunciation.
@Acsenray, I agree with you that people don’t all have to agree on a single pronunciation. I guess that Qatar will probably end up like Moscow, where some say “cow” like the bovine and others rhyme the last syllable with “doe.” 
The one in Idaho sounds a lot like Ma’s cow. “Moskva” also seems to vary somewhat between “MAHSK-vuh” and “musk-VAH” (the latter being more accurate, so, probably less common).