Regional accents

Have you ever noticed how different regions speak differently? I mean this in a geographical accent way, but also in a "circles you travel" way. Each community shapes the way people talk. It's interesting how easily we pick up the "accent."

When I read books, I start thinking in the cadence of the books I read. My favorite types of books generally have a similar style or tone. Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz or Marilynne Robinson's Gilead. They have a reflective, casual tone that has a musical cadence. Thoughtful, yet humorous. Many times when I'm in the midst of reading these kinds of books, I find myself thinking in similar patterns. It's the same if I am listening to an audio book with an accent - I start thinking with that accent and the patterns of speech of what I am engrossed in.

Academic communities have the same thing. People who study the same things and read the same sorts of books start getting their own jargon, their own manner of expressing ideas. Sometimes this is a highbrow, convoluted type of speech. Sometimes it is teaching and self-interruptions with examples. Sometimes it focuses on people, sometimes ideas, sometimes other books, sometimes...a whole host of things.

The beauty of these different accents is the way they shape us and the communities we are a part of. Few people belong to only one speech community. It's a beautiful thing when we can "translate" between our communities, joining, for instance, theory and practice, or anything else that seems to be juxtaposed (yes, I did just go to a conference at Princeton and feel the need to express myself in higher vocabulary lol).

Thinking about all this during the past weekend, I feel like I had more to add. But the travel has wiped my mind clean. Perhaps there will be more to follow. Perhaps not. In the mean time, enjoy the different ways we talk. Marvel at the speech communities you're a part of. And read some good books.