"...The home dialect of most African American speakers has developed a grammar that is more and more different from that of the white mainstream dialects in the major cities studied and yet highly homogeneous throughout the United States..."
Is there a difference between a "dialect" and an "accent"?
Because having been in the military, I can definitely tell you that different black people have different accents. I think anyone who's been in the military could tell you that. So I'm wondering if this guy means that blacks speak the same language, which is AAVE, but the accent of a black person from Jackson, Mississippi could still be significantly different from the accent of a black person from Lincoln, Nebraska? (Because their accents are, in fact, significantly different.)
The basic premise is that there is no clear distinction between the term "dialect" and "language". Especially when you hit interesting cases like dialect continuum, which is a bit like a game of telephone. Any two neighboring dialects can generally understand each other, but the further away you get the less that is true. So if you look at the two ends, is that two different languages? Even though you could walk from one to the other and everyone will understand each other?
An accent, on the other hand, is something more intrinsic to how an individual renders sounds. That is, I can speak my native language English with my accent, and I can also speak Spanish with that same accent. For instance, I could use English "r" sound (/ɹ/) instead of the Spanish rolled or tapped "r" sounds (/r/ and /ɾ/). Or I could use English vowel "e" (/ɛ/ or maybe /eɪ/) instead of Spanish vowel "e" (/e/). And so on. "Losing your accent" is basically learning how to render those sounds in a fashion that matches expectations.
Is there a difference between a "dialect" and an "accent"?
Yes! Most definitely.
I speak Norwegian with a fairly heavy English accent. The brand of norwegian I speak is a mix between "standard" bokmål, which is also kind of 'government-speak' and close to the Oslo accent, and Trøndersk, which is the local dialect where I live.
The english affects the way I pronounce things.
The difference in dialects is vast. Verbs are conjugated a bit differently: For some words, entire sounds are different. For example, "Hvor" (Where) is "Kor" in this region. Additionally, there are things like some pronouns being essentially a different word and different syllables dropped compared to other places. And lots and lots of differences like that. Even the melody is different depending on where folks are from. And these are within the same form of Norwegian - there are two official types. The written word is more standardized, but I have seen the local dialect in print form (I can barely read it).
So yes, I can completely see a southern accent being an accent, yet some things being a dialect. There is a much bigger difference between the accent and the dialect.
Is there a difference between a "dialect" and an "accent"?
Because having been in the military, I can definitely tell you that different black people have different accents. I think anyone who's been in the military could tell you that. So I'm wondering if this guy means that blacks speak the same language, which is AAVE, but the accent of a black person from Jackson, Mississippi could still be significantly different from the accent of a black person from Lincoln, Nebraska? (Because their accents are, in fact, significantly different.)