Accents and Regional Dialects

JaseSF · October 12, 2011, 09:26:43 PM

To most who come here from away, we talk well way too fast for most of 'em.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjY6rMXtCl4

Flangepart · October 15, 2011, 11:24:00 AM

Accents are fun. I like to do the Scotts when I'm in the mood. Ya wanna learn it right, listen to Craig Ferguson read his autobiography, AMERICAN BY CHOICE.
As long as I can make out the word, accents don't throw me. I think some folks have more trouble when they realize they have to think to make out the words, and it irritates them.

I think of an accent as the icing on the cake of language. A nice extra bit of character. As an Ohio guy, we have the beige of accents. It's just there...that's why I use other peoples accents, to liven things up, Aye Jimmy!

alandhopewell · October 15, 2011, 12:43:44 PM

Quote from: Flick James on October 07, 2011, 03:47:16 PM
My 6 years in the Navy taught me some of the nuances in Southern accents depending on the area. I had a good friend from Alabama and a good friend from Tennessee, and their accents and manners of speaking were noticeably different. The guy from Tennessee, I swear some single-syllable words turned into two-syllable words. For example, the word "fork" was somehow "foh-erk." I noticed another guy I knew in the Navy from Arkansas also had a similar phenomenon with the word "fork."

Then there's differences in Southern accents among black folks. I met a guy, and I can't remember what state he came from, but he applied the most interesting pronunciation of the word "orange" I'd ever heard. I swear it sounded like "ernge," like the word "urn" but with a soft "g" applied to the end. I questioned him about and he laughed, saying he gets made fun of all the time, by white and black folks alike, but in the small town he came from down south, that's just how everybody said it. He also said it sucked because that was his favorite fruit and he ate them all the time.

When I worked for Marriott, one of my bosses was a black woman. One day, Antionette tells me to go get an "errn"....I was clueless until she said, "Your shirt is wrinkled".

I'm not sure, but I think that some black pronunciations of things are deliberate cultural identifiers, such as pronouncing the "w" in "sword".

Me, I speak Standard English, with a slight Midwestern (Ohio) accent, although I pick up accents unconsciously sometimes. When in a playful mood, I may slide into DudeSpeech; drives some other black folks crazy, for some reason.

alandhopewell · October 15, 2011, 12:46:33 PM

Quote from: Flangepart on October 15, 2011, 11:24:00 AM
Accents are fun. I like to do the Scotts when I'm in the mood. Ya wanna learn it right, listen to Craig Ferguson read his autobiography, AMERICAN BY CHOICE.
As long as I can make out the word, accents don't throw me. I think some folks have more trouble when they realize they have to think to make out the words, and it irritates them.

I think of an accent as the icing on the cake of language. A nice extra bit of character. As an Ohio guy, we have the beige of accents. It's just there...that's why I use other peoples accents, to liven things up, Aye Jimmy!

I do that, and fer th'same reason, laddie....also, I've a wee stutter, and doing an accent (or a "radio" voice) neutralizes it.

Mofo Rising · October 16, 2011, 03:44:50 AM

I think everybody has speech indicators that they are unaware of, and as subtle as they are they can be picked up upon.

I remember being very surprised when a coworker of mine at a pizza place I was working at in Phoenix identified me as being from up north. He correctly identified that I had a sort of Canadian drawl to my voice; I'm from Southeast Alaska. All I could think was, "Really? I sound Canadian?" It can be really location specific, too. I remember the people from some of the smaller (mostly) Indian villages had a very definite cadence to their voices. I can't really describe it, but it's unmistakable.

There are also some manners of speaking that are not geographically centered, but seem to be culturally influenced. I don't mean this to open up a powderkeg, because it certainly isn't universal. A predominant example is the stereotypical "gay male" voice. Or even the "redneck" voice. Those two seem immediately identifiable, but they don't really have a geographic center, they just tend to pop up in subcultures.

Again, let me stress that those speech patterns are not restricted to those groups, or even reliable indicators. (I can tell you for a fact they aren't.) Read this. Heck, consider that the "surfer dude" or "valley girl" is not restricted to age or California.

It should be noted that every dialect follows its own rules of speech. I remember the furor over ebonics, when it was introduced as a concept about a decade or so ago. A dialect may not sound "proper" to a language purist weened on newscaster English, but it is internally consistent. Every person has internal language rules that they follow, it just seems to be how language is learned.

I'm not a language purist. Language is fluid and living. I am a stickler for good grammar and punctuation, but that's only because I read a lot of text and prize clarity. But I'll incorporate anything and even make up words if I think it serves a purpose.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man."

Flick James · October 16, 2011, 10:11:51 AM

QuoteAgain, let me stress that those speech patterns are not restricted to those groups, or even reliable indicators. (I can tell you for a fact they aren't.) Read this. Heck, consider that the "surfer dude" or "valley girl" is not restricted to age or California.

I'm confused. Is this the powderkeg you were afraid of opening?

But seriously folks. Once upon a time, the "Californese" you speak of was regionally significant once upon a time. Somehow over the last 30 years it got somewhat absorbed into Americana.

Mofo Rising · October 17, 2011, 03:50:59 AM

Quote from: Flick James on October 16, 2011, 10:11:51 AM
QuoteAgain, let me stress that those speech patterns are not restricted to those groups, or even reliable indicators. (I can tell you for a fact they aren't.) Read this. Heck, consider that the "surfer dude" or "valley girl" is not restricted to age or California.

I'm confused. Is this the powderkeg you were afraid of opening?

But seriously folks. Once upon a time, the "Californese" you speak of was regionally significant once upon a time. Somehow over the last 30 years it got somewhat absorbed into Americana.

I was hedging my bets since I really don't want the powerful Valley Girl Anti-Defamation League hounding me for misplaced words. I still remember how the Clueless debacle tore this country apart, and I would hate to pick at that wound again.

Trevor · October 17, 2011, 04:22:34 AM

Quote from: tracy1963 on October 07, 2011, 02:37:34 PM
Well,I work in a convenience store so I occassionally run into folks from other countries. I've heard German and English and Australian but the most interesting one I've heard so far is a young man here in Texas for the dirt bike races. He was from South Africa and had a delightful accent.

That is not the only delightful thing about people from South Africa, I can tell you. Aside from the horrible state of one particular South African's underpants, we're pretty nice people really.

Flick James · November 08, 2011, 11:25:38 AM

My mother-in-law, originally from Belfast, has this saying that I heard a couple of dozen times before I found out what she was saying, but what I thought she was saying was off-color.

What she was actually saying was: "have a titter of wit." It's carries the same meaning as "have an ounce of sense."

Because of her accent and fast manner of speaking, I kept hearing "have a tit or a wit."

I must have heard this a couple dozen times at least, not really knowing how to respond if it was said to me. Because she was my future mother-in-law, and I didn't know what she was saying, and because what I thought it sounded like I just kind of nervously grinned and nodded most of the time like an idiot. In my mind I'm thinking "Is she saying 'have a tit or a wit,' and if so, why?"

Finally, a friend of the family who was sitting at the table, and who was also from Ireland and a brilliant smart-ass in his own right, and who had wisely picked up that I was struggling with this, leaned over and said to me "if I were you I'd take the tit."

Paquita · November 08, 2011, 01:00:46 PM

My dad had a bit of a Cajun accent.. I don't know where he got it, I don't think he'd ever even been to Louisiana. I wasn't even sure it was Cajun until I was flipping through the TV one day and caught the Cajun chef and he talked just like my dad!

A few years ago I met two Irish tourists and gave them directions to get to Wrigley Field, and they told me I had the most adorable American accent they ever heard! I turned around and got all excited and thought "I HAVE AN ACCENT??!?!" I'm sure they were just being nice, I don't think I sound any different from anyone else.