Regional Dialects

[canesisters]

Ok.... I used to suspect that I was adopted (until I turned into my Mom) but now I'm starting to think that I wasn't even raised where I think I was. I got most of them ALL wrong .. for southern VA that is.

Caramel only has 2 syllables - CAR-mul
Jim Boowie is who the boo-wie knife is named after.
The thing you color with is a cray-awn
The shreaded cabbage stuff that you top bbq with is coldslaw - am I the only one who correctly pronounces the 'd'?
The clothes you sleep in are pa-jam-as. Unless they have footies, then they are jam-ies.
The little lobsters that you fish out of the creek to tease your sister with is a craw-dad.
The lace-up shoes that you play in are called tin-e-shoes.
And yes - if it's raining when the sun is shining it IS because the devil is beating his wife. And no, I have no idea what that means other than if I heard someone say it I would know to carry an umbrella.
Seriouisly???? It says Brew-thru right there on the sign (and on the t-shirts)!
The Mary, merry, marry thing... I'm not even on the map. Merry is different from the other two.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i was surprised when it listed the options for 'crayfish' that it didn't give the option for mud bugs!

i know my sister's accent gets picked up a lot by strangers. she was born in Beverly, MA but moved up to NH shortly after and lived most of her life here before moving back to part of MA in 1998. when she traveled around to different places people seemed to pick up on her accent being from the Boston, MA area. or should i say 'Bawston'. in NH we tend to replace R's in our words with 'ah' or add R's to words that didn't have them.

 

[digitS']

Ha! We had the iceman coming when I was a kid, too.

Cane', you talk a lot like what I'm used to.

Of course, I'm on the border in a lot of ways. One thing, there is some kidding about a "barnyard twang" in the Intermountain West. I'm not sure if I ever had it but I think it has a lot to do with country music. But then, Dad was from Oklahoma and New Mexico . . .

So many of the people (and teachers) in Oregon came from the New England and places like Pennsylvania and Ohio, I imagine that made a difference in my early schooling. When I met all these folks from the upper Midwest after moving here, I suspect they had an idea where I was coming from but it wasn't quite "there" but also not the upper Midwest. I was "part of" the immigration from the south but that meant California more than Oregon.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

Ok.... I used to suspect that I was adopted (until I turned into my Mom) but now I'm starting to think that I wasn't even raised where I think I was. I got most of them ALL wrong .. for southern VA that is.

Caramel only has 2 syllables - CAR-mul
Jim Boowie is who the boo-wie knife is named after.
The thing you color with is a cray-awn
The shreaded cabbage stuff that you top bbq with is coldslaw - am I the only one who correctly pronounces the 'd'?
The clothes you sleep in are pa-jam-as. Unless they have footies, then they are jam-ies.
The little lobsters that you fish out of the creek to tease your sister with is a craw-dad.
The lace-up shoes that you play in are called tin-e-shoes.
And yes - if it's raining when the sun is shining it IS because the devil is beating his wife. And no, I have no idea what that means other than if I heard someone say it I would know to carry an umbrella.
Seriouisly???? It says Brew-thru right there on the sign (and on the t-shirts)!
The Mary, merry, marry thing... I'm not even on the map. Merry is different from the other two.

Cane, when I read your list I suspected you were my twin-separated-at-birth....until I got down the list some more...
Shoes you play in are TENnies.
Everyone knows it's COLE slaw, because it's made from vegetables in the cole family. But my husband would agree with you.
Of course he says "addict" for "attic too. Poor man.

I'm curious how you pronounce Mary, merry, marry? To me they are the same.

 

[canesisters]

Thistle - merry rhymes with cheer-y.

And I've never heard of the Cole family - except for the singers of course.

 

[Just-Moxie]

Ha...great topic!! I was born and raised in Kansas City...on the "Miss-oo-REE" side...not "Mis-oo-RAH" like some prefer to pronounce it.
I married a Navy man and proceeded to live down in "Buh-lux-ee" "Miss-ippi" for 15 years, learning southern and cajun in the process.
I was told I had a Southern accent when I went back to Kansas City to visit family.
The "crawfish" turned into "mud bugs". The "median" became "neutral ground". "New Or-leans" became "Naw'lins". I learned to say "POE-boy" if I wanted a "sub sandwich".
A "raised donut" turned into a "yeast donut". "Iced Tea" is synonymous with "sweet tea". You have to specifically ask for "unsweetened tea" ...down south.
My BFF...a 70 yr old lady from "Miss-ippi"... would ask me to drive her some where..."carry her to town". If I was out doing errands...she said I was "runnin' the roads".
Her name was Mary..."Miss Mah-ree" to those un-initiated to Southern Genteel Ways.

Oh, Biloxi actually had one of those drive through beer barns for a while...back in the 80's. It was a novelty. Down on the beach.

Now, the Navy man ex..he was an army brat from Indiana. We had our own Dialect wars and misunderstandings. That lasted 20 years.

Now I am living in south Carolina, and married to a man from West Virginnie. One time, not too long ago..he requested I fetch the "mattock" (?) from the woodshop. That turned in to a dialect lesson. I grew up with a "pick-axe". Had no idee what a "mattock" is. We still bump dialects quite often. Oh, and his mother and I do too. I had no idee what a "lawn tractor" was or a "push mower" is. Come to find out...."lawn tractor=riding mower"........"push mower=lawn mower"....

Boy, have I got alot to learn

 

[hoodat]

Near where I lived in Oklahoma there is a Brazil Creek only it is pronounced Brazle (hard A). The Force Malin Creek is called the Foosh and the town of Reichert somehow came to be pronounced Richie.

 

[catjac1975]

Certainly you've heard "pahk the cah in Hahvad Yahd." (Park the car in Harvard yard.) They do not pronounce their R's around here. Though I've noticed that has changed a lot. I grew up in Connecticut so when I moved to Massachusetts and started teaching I could not even understand the students. Until I retired the kids said I talked funny.

 

[canesisters]

Here's something I've always wondered about. When I watch the national news, the announcers sound just like me. Do they sound southern to yall? Someone said that they train to not have any accent.... how come they don't sound funny talking without an accent?

 

[digitS']

I have a book about English by Robert MacNeil. You know, the PBS news guy. It is a wonderful book and since the study of language needs to go back so many years, it isn't dated altho' it must have been written 15 years ago.

Robert, or as his friends know him "Robin," grew up in Canada in one of the maritime provinces if I remember right. He came to NYC hoping to be an actor and the book records a little of his efforts learning to talk like an American . . .

One thing he says in there, and I don't really know how true it still is, is that in the UK, the news should be spoken with a Northern Ireland accent . . ! Some of that thinking is a part of American television broadcasting. And, some of that thinking and interpreting is in the minds of the American public.

Steve