FREE ESSAY ON IVERSITY IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

IVERSITY IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Diversity in the English Language
Any new coming freshman to West Virginia University is certain to hear a larger variety
of accents and dialect in the English language than they have ever before encountered.
West Virginia University has a diverse student body, which includes students from all
fifty states and over one hundred different nations. West Virginia University's webpage
statistics show that approximately twenty-nine percent of the students are non-residents
of West Virginia, and five percent of the students are from other countries. What makes
West Virginia University's speech so unique in character is the overwhelming variety in
the English language to which its students contribute. 
As students from different areas of the country communicate with one another for the
first time, they begin to notice a significant amount of variation between their
dialects. For instance, many people disagree about the proper term for carbonated
beverages. A majority of students from states such as Pennsylvania and West Virginia
believe "pop" is the only correct expression, while students from New Jersey or New York
claim it to be nothing else but a "soda." Words like "grinder," as they are dubbed in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, are referred to as "hoagies" in Pittsburgh and "subs" in
Ohio. While the majority of the country adds the finishing touch of "sprinkles" to their
ice cream, people from Pittsburgh top it off with "jimmies." Pittsburgh natives have many
strange words and phrases in their dialect. For example, while shopping in an office
supply store, instead of searching for "rubberbands," which appears on the label,
Pittsburghers are on a mission to come across "gumbands." Another odd phrase used
throughout the surrounding Pittsburgh area is "red up." Anyone living outside of the
vicinity will almost definitely question the expression. The term "red up," is used in
place of "tidying up." A Pittsburgh student, Angela Peconi, stated "when my mother wants
me to clean up my room without doing a major cleaning job, she simply asks me to 'red up'
my room." Other students whom resided in Pittsburgh argue while washing their hands, the
water comes out of the "spicket," opposed to a "faucet," which is used elsewhere. While
grocery shopping in the city of Pittsburgh, your groceries are put into a "buggy," but in
all other parts of the country a "shopping cart" is pushed around the store. In some
backyards, there are bushes that have little prickly thorns sticking out of them. Do
these bushes actually have a name? In Pittsburgh they do and are termed "jagger-bushes!"
Most students that were asked that question replied there was no such name for the bush,
and an Ohio student believed they were dubbed "thorn-bushes." Besides the citizens of
Pittsburgh having an eccentric dialect, students from Boston also have out of the
ordinary terminology. While walking down the hall to class, a Bostonian, freshman
student, Pam, felt dreadfully dehydrated. She was in need of water and stopped at the
"bubbler" to get a drink. This was especially comical to her friends, who usually stop to
get a drink at the "water fountain." A New York native was disappointed while searching
for "chicken wings" on the menu at the Texas Roadhouse because they did not carry them.
Later on, she figured out in states outside of New York they are referred to as "buffalo
wings." Even though students at West Virginia University speak the same English language,
they all bring their unique dialects from their hometowns. 
Besides dialect, many students at West Virginia University have strong accents, which
make it easy to distinguish their different origins. For example, students coming from
the Boston neighborhood, pronounce their homeland, Bahston. Most other areas of the
country would pronounce the city as it is spelled. Pittsburgh natives also have a slight
accent on a few words such as "Carnegie" and "downtown." While pronouncing "Carnegie,"
Pittsburghers stress the middle syllable, thus saying Carnegie. Almost everyone outside
of this section of Pennsylvania would enunciate the last syllable. The word now changes
from Carnegie to Carnegee. Also, the word "downtown" to most people is pronounced
downtown - other than in Pittsburgh. There, they declare the word is dahntahn. "South"
also is pronounced with a similar accent to "downtown," which sounds like sahth. Besides
Pittsburgh and Boston accents, New York and New Jersey citizens also have their own
twang. They pronounce their "O's" as "aw." For example, "coffee" sounds like cawfee when
said by a New York or New Jersey native. Also, they pronounce words such as "talk," tawk,
and "dog," dawg. Southerners also carry potent accents. They tend to speak slower than
people do from the North, and have a long "drawl." Jillian, a West Virginian with a
strong southern accent, once asked "Y'all waant to go aut (out) tonight?" Many other
words sound very drawn out such as cooo, which means, "cool," and tawwwwk, or "talk."
Each region of the country has its own accent which attributes to the variance in the
English language brought to WVU by its students. 
Because students from across the globe bring their different accents, dialects, and
sayings to West Virginia University, linguistics borrowing is bound to occur. For
example, a freshman student from Maryland had never heard the term "flustered" before
arriving at West Virginia University. Now, she uses the expression all of the time,
borrowing it from her roommate. Another word Christina, the student from Maryland,
borrows are the terms "swest" and "vetter." Her roommate is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
and in her high school they called sweater vests for guys, "swests," and sweater vests
for girls, "vetters." Angela, from Pittsburgh, now has a slight Michigan accent because
of her roommate. She also rejected the term "buggy" from her vocabulary and adopted the
word "shopping cart." West Virginia University has a very diverse student body, which
causes the students to share some of their linguistic traits with others.
There are many differences between the students at West Virginia University and the way
they speak the English language, which makes this campus very special. Because there is a
variety in speech, students are able to experience situations that they would not
encounter in their hometown. They are now able to learn from one another, and share their
native languages. In addition, students now have skills to recognize another student from
another area of the country by the way they speak. West Virginia University provides many
great experiences and can be distinguished from other universities because of the
diversity of students, which attend, and their different versions of the English language
brought with them.