On my long, slow drive back to post from Thanksgiving weekend with family, I happened across a striking pair of voices on NPR: a woman from the west of Scotland was interviewing a folk singer from Appalachian Kentucky (hopefully they will update with a podcast, I'd love to listen to the whole thing). I was struck by the contrasts between the two women's dialects, but I couldn't tell you which I'd like to listen to more. English is a beautiful language, and don't let anyone convince you otherwise.
2 comments:
Those two accents should really have a lot in common with each other - take a hill-country dialect, split it up, then add, oh, about 300 years or so of differentiation on two different continents and there ya go.
There's a very good reason you can dance Ceilidh dance steps to a lot of Appalachian music, and why some Ceilidh dances look disturbingly like square dances.
I really hope that the podcast of that show comes up, I think you and Mad Musician would really enjoy it. Jean Ritchie (the lady from Kentucky) started her career as a folk music historian in the 50's, and one of her first research projects was a trip to England, Scotland, and Ireland tracking down the origins of her family's songs, so they talk a lot about how the music connects with the history and all that fun stuff.
Post a Comment