Have you ever noticed that singers’ dialects don’t necessarily match their speaking voices? Or that sometimes the singers use dialects and accents to either make a cultural statement or simply embrace their own regional dialects of English?
Linguist Karen Burgos returns to the podcast for the November 2024 episode to discuss this very topic: American and British dialects in popular song. She and Paul are joined by podcast co-producer and frequent guest Cameron Meier.
They play clips from songs ranging from the first decade of the 20th century to today, analyzing the singers’ dialects. In many instances, singers’ dialects don’t match their speaking voices, while, at other times, the singers use dialect to either make a cultural statement or embrace their own regional dialects.
Go here to listen, or find it on your favorite podcast channel or index.
