CNN – Class seeks to rid kids of Appalachian accents
I suppose this issue never really disappears. As the world gets smaller the pressure gets greater to standardize everything, including the way we speak.
There was actually a great documentary done a while ago (can’t remember who did it) that addressed these issues. I saw it in a socio-linguistics class at UIUC. It discussed how many people who made the move to larger cities or different regions, altered or even lost theiry regional dialects to fit in. Of course, then it’s more than an issue of dialect, but more importantly an issue of indentity. Language is Culture is Identity.