Serious Jinglers Dealing With Layers of Diglossia Can Sail Smoothly

Dear Fellow Earthlings,

A little over 100 of my Jingles clients are currently living and working in the state of New Jersey in the United States.

Due largely in part to the huge numbers of immigrants who entered the United States through the New Jersey/New York port of Ellis Island between the years 1892 and 1924, the English spoken in New Jersey never has had a chance to settle or mature.

Therefore, the approximately 9,000,000 people packed into this state speak with cadences, resonances, and rhythms that form the “Jersey dialect” — which, while closely resembling the “New York City dialect”, differs rather markedly from the English spoken in nearby Boston (located some 250 miles from Princeton, New Jersey). The vernacular of New Jerseyites / New Jersiyans is in and of itself composed of myriad layers of diglossia…

Television, radio, and other forms of mass media deliver the bulk of their contents in more or less “standard American English” to residents of New Jersey — but most people who appear in the media are fully aware of the necessity to “watch their language” carefully so as not to hurt or enrage or insult or otherwise “disturb” their listeners. What results is (to one extent or the other) that this “high language” is used for general discourse, serving as a means for moving its users through whatever situations they encounter.

What with all of the political, social, religious, ethnic considerations that must be balanced, it is truly difficult for someone who is trying to develop kerm English pronunciation (not to mention usage, grammar, and vocabulary) to do so with any degree of certainty.

New Jersey is the place I chose for the venue of this blog installment, for its numerous diglossia challenge newcomers as they seek to establish niches for themselves and — in many cases — their families, as they live and work in “the Garden State”.

The Jingles provide my clients with tools they will need as they deal with the many overlapping diglossia they will be exposed to in such places as New Jersey.

Steve Walker

Earthsaver and Jingles Creator

© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.