Why The Chicago Accent Is Dying

About this episode

This episode explores the various Chicago accents and the reasons behind their decline.

The so-called “Chicago accent” is one of the city’s greatest exports, alongside Italian beef, deep-dish pizza and up-and-coming sketch comedians. Most associate a particular kind of sound to the average Chicagoan. But there are actually many Chicago accents with different origins. And many of them are dying out.

Topics covered

• Chicago accent
• language
• cultural identity
• sociolinguistics
• regional dialects

Keywords

• Chicago accent
• language
• cultural identity
• dialect
• sociolinguistics

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Italian beef, deep-dish pizza

Books & works: sketch comedians

Places: Chicago

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