[ExI] Genes and the Great Vowel Shift

[Damien Broderick]

At 09:50 AM 2/24/2008 -0800, PJ wrote:
>Likewise
>a New England Yankee sounds nothing like a person from the American
>Deep South.  In New Zealand, I could easily differentiate people
>raised on the North vs. the South Island.
>
>Maybe the gene theory comes into play more here?  (isolation x time) +
>history/influences + genetics = dialect?

This "gene theory" of utterance is all the most incredible 
codswallop. Haven't you guys ever spoken to an Asian-ancestry human 
raised in California or Sydney, or a Pakistani from Leeds, or a kid 
from an impoverished background who's been sent to a classy school? 
Genes, schmemes. (Pun intended.)

Damien Broderick