Linguistic Ponderings....

[KiwiMoose]

To quote from the 'Soapy Thing' thread:

Masters in Applied Linguistics here...
I could go into a detailed explanation about this but it would be a bit long, and possibly boring for people more interested in soap than the way languages work. In short - it's the combination of the 't' and 'y' than makes the 'ch' sound. Lots of other interesting things happen when certain consonants or vowels blend into new sounds. If anyone is interested I could start a new thread about it. Oh sorry, what's that? You've nodded off already....?

I had so much speech therapy as a child to pronounce read and spell letter blends correctly. I blame this for enunciating letter blends correctly.

You wouldn’t think this would cause so much confusion, but I get blank looks for just enunciating letters correctly.

For example, asking for water pronounced with a tt instead of “wadder” will get blank looks and “whad ya say honey”s from waitresses and waiters.

I’ve became kind of paranoid about it and have to frequently remind myself to mispronounce my blends in order to speak American English correctly.

Or in other words I’ll join you on the other thread, lol

When I lived in Kentucky, I asked for a glass of woor-ta (in my Kiwi accent) several times at a noisy bar ( and was not being understood AT ALL) before I finally gave up and said wah-derrrr. I got my water instantly.

I have had many arguments with my sister, who accuses me of over-articulation when I talk to her. We finally figured out she has misphonia, and certain sounds actually trigger emotional reactions or cause her physical pain. I think my crisp articulation grew out of singing. Look at any sheet of music, and we see it is broken up into syllables, clear and easy to understand. Singing with my daughter since she was an infant is why her speech is crystal, clear, despite having autism and mental retardation.

I love singing - I think singers are good at learning languages.

Correctly in that region perhaps .. that's not how those are pronounced here in the intermountain west or pacific coast. And probably differently in the northeast.

Loads of fun regional dialects in the US & Canada.

Yes - I love them all!

OMG, my dear Kiwi Friend, the onion of You keeps peeling and peeling. Maker of gore-juss soaps and rocks and Masters in Applied Wha' Now?! I'm fascinated by languages and linguistics. If I haven't shared before, Zing Junior went to college in Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.A. and we enjoyed our visits there. People were speaking "English" and I was soo embarrassed to ask them to repeat themselves. A cashier asked for a price that was twenty syllables long. In my world, $2.10 is TWO syllables -- two ten. I don't even know how to type it but it was twenty syllables long!

I'm mostly monolingual English speaking and English is hard. My father, a retired educator, continues to correct me on lay/lie, sit/set, etc. I gave him a coffee mug that says "I'm silently judging you on your grammar." Except he's not so silent on the judging -- and the correcting....
Where's that thread again??

The secret to speaking good 'Southern' is that if it has one syllable , make it two, and it it has two, make it one. Example: You cannot do that = ya kain do thay-at. And say it all really slowly, so it takes twice as long as it would be said anywhere else in the world.

 

[KiwiMoose]

So one thing us Kiwis do that you Americans and Canadians don't, is to use the 'intrusive r'.

The intrusive r goes between a word that ends in a vowel and a word that starts in a vowel. If you'll excuse my talking about lingerie in my linguistics elucidation (just throwing in a bit of rhythm and alliteration there) my example is as follows:

I'm putting my bra on, becomes:
I'm putting my brar on, or:
I'm putting my bra ron, or:
I'm putting my braaron

 

[Vicki C]

So one thing us Kiwis do that you Americans and Canadians don't, is to use the 'intrusive r'.

The intrusive r goes between a word that ends in a vowel and a word that starts in a vowel. If you'll excuse my talking about lingerie in my linguistics elucidation (just throwing in a bit of rhythm and alliteration there) my example is as follows:

I'm putting my bra on, becomes:
I'm putting my brar on, or:
I'm putting my bra ron, or:
I'm putting my braaron

Love your example… Actually, people from Boston do something similar - add Rs where there are none and drop the final r. My mom is from Boston and growing up I thought “lozenge” was “lozenger” and a winter “parka” was a “parker.” Conversely I thought a “chest of drawers” was a “chest of draws”.
Ok time to put my braaron and make some soap…

 

[Shelley D]

Y'all! And yes, I choose "Y'all" over "youse"! I was raised in NJ where 'water' is 'wooder' and then moved to Arkansas where they speak their own version of American English! I have also lived briefly in MA, NH and VA through the years before ending up in FL ~ I have always loved learning the local dialecs and blending in and get a giggle when a specific word gives me away
My middle child was non-verbal up to 3 years old (even had his own language of grunts and sounds, which included different sounds for each person) and consequently had speech problems when he finally started talking so he had speech therapy in school and had better verbal articulation than anyone else in rural Arkansas. So much so, that people constantly asked where he was from even though they knew us and knew we lived nowhere but there for over 10 years! Everyone said HE had an accent! To this day he still lives in the same area and is a soft spoken, articulate young man who still gets asked where he's from! Gotta love language!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

I was raised in a family that spoke mid-century Brooklyn-ease that evolved into generalized New Yawkah, with a good Long Island (NY) twist. Long ago I read that the Brooklyn accent had its roots in the melding of Italian and Irish immigrants, but this piece points to very complex roots. As far as my family is concerned, the correct pronunciation of water is war-dah, not wah-ter (or however YOU pronounce it) and cof-fee is caw-fee. I would need to call my sister to check, but I'm pretty sure that chest of drawers is chest of drawrers (one syllable). My first name ends with a "a" which becomes an "er" and my last name, which ends with "er" is pronounced as if there is an "a" at the end. This is not my name, but to provide an example - Melinda Parker might become Me-lin-der* Par-kah, although some might shift it to Par-gah. The famous example is Rockefeller Center, pronounced Rockafellah Centah or possibly Ra-gah-fella Cen-da. Never in my life did I encounter anyone who said, "I love the NY accent."

eta: that should probably be Ma-lin-der

 

[Zing]

I was blown away by southern hospitality and generally found people warm, welcoming, and friendly. I did notice the maximization of words. Motel clerk says "Whatcha wanna gonna do now is back up your vehicle right down here over here." I would have said "Park in that spot." And use two words when one would suffice. It's not 'pen' but 'ink pen.' I'm not judging -- who am to talk? I live in MinneSOHta doncha know ya you betcha. Uff da!

I notice the intrusive R on the BBC all the time! My aunt, born and raised in South Dakota, used it too. Go wash your hands was go warsh your hands.

And I just got back from vacationing in Maine. Can I say wicked pissah here? Still don't understand that. We went to a party and everyone was talking about the potty!
And I do think the loss of 'thou' was a mistake. "You" is so nonspecific which is why we have y'all now. I love 'all y'all' too!

 

[paradisi]

So one thing us Kiwis do that you Americans and Canadians don't, is to use the 'intrusive r'.

The intrusive r goes between a word that ends in a vowel and a word that starts in a vowel. If you'll excuse my talking about lingerie in my linguistics elucidation (just throwing in a bit of rhythm and alliteration there) my example is as follows:

I'm putting my bra on, becomes:
I'm putting my brar on, or:
I'm putting my bra ron, or:
I'm putting my braaron

Ask a person from Florida by way of South Carolina to pronounce "Chicago" or "wash"... Chicargo and worsh

 

[Shelley D]

I was blown away by southern hospitality and generally found people warm, welcoming, and friendly. I did notice the maximization of words. Motel clerk says "Whatcha wanna gonna do now is back up your vehicle right down here over here." I would have said "Park in that spot." And use two words when one would suffice. It's not 'pen' but 'ink pen.' I'm not judging -- who am to talk? I live in MinneSOHta doncha know ya you betcha. Uff da!

I notice the intrusive R on the BBC all the time! My aunt, born and raised in South Dakota, used it too. Go wash your hands was go warsh your hands.

And I just got back from vacationing in Maine. Can I say wicked pissah here? Still don't understand that. We went to a party and everyone was talking about the potty!
And I do think the loss of 'thou' was a mistake. "You" is so nonspecific which is why we have y'all now. I love 'all y'all' too!

Ink pen helps differentiate from something else, like say a stick pin! Even southerners have trouble understanding each other sometimes, especially when they are from "different parts"
When I was living in VA I had a friend with family in WVa and we would drive over the mountains and cross the Valley into WVa and I could hear the difference from one town to the next!

 

[dmcgee5034]

A gal in my office is from Venezuela and has a beautiful accent! We do have a few “favorite” words that have us all in giggles - most famously is beach - if you didn’t know better, you’d think she cussed like a sailor telling us about vacation

Is it true for everyone, your areas speech or dialect is normal, and everyone else has an accent? I remember being on a call with a man from the Southern US and gushing over his awesome accent and commented how I didn’t have one. He replied with a laugh “oh yes you do, California” . I do throw everyone off when I say pop for soda.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Ink pen helps differentiate from something else, like say a stick pin!

My dad once sent my high school boyfriend to the bakery to get rolls for breakfast. Being a Virginia transplant, he came back with swaaaight rolls when what my dad wanted was crusty Kaiser rolls. There were no scrambled egg sandwiches with ket-chup (and definitely not catsup) for breakfast that day.

 

[NewlyCreative]

@KiwiMoose wrote “When I lived in Kentucky, I asked for a glass of woor-ta (in my Kiwi accent) several times at a noisy bar ( and was not being understood AT ALL) before I finally gave up and said wah-derrrr. I got my water instantly.”

This has happened to me in an airplane more times than I can count. Wah-tterrr is a gibberish, but wah-dderrr works.

My husband grew up in a different part of the country than me so there is a war of words for sofa vs couch and soda vs pop, between us, lol.

Sometimes I start throwing out Davenport (for couch) and pocketbook (for purse) to up the ante.

 

[Vicki C]

I was blown away by southern hospitality and generally found people warm, welcoming, and friendly. I did notice the maximization of words. Motel clerk says "Whatcha wanna gonna do now is back up your vehicle right down here over here." I would have said "Park in that spot." And use two words when one would suffice. It's not 'pen' but 'ink pen.' I'm not judging -- who am to talk? I live in MinneSOHta doncha know ya you betcha. Uff da!

I notice the intrusive R on the BBC all the time! My aunt, born and raised in South Dakota, used it too. Go wash your hands was go warsh your hands.

And I just got back from vacationing in Maine. Can I say wicked pissah here? Still don't understand that. We went to a party and everyone was talking about the potty!
And I do think the loss of 'thou' was a mistake. "You" is so nonspecific which is why we have y'all now. I love 'all y'all' too!

“Wicked” as a modifier is still a part of my vernacular. As in, “the Canadian wildfire smoke is making it wicked hazy here.”

 

[Vicki C]

@KiwiMoose wrote “When I lived in Kentucky, I asked for a glass of woor-ta (in my Kiwi accent) several times at a noisy bar ( and was not being understood AT ALL) before I finally gave up and said wah-derrrr. I got my water instantly.”

This has happened to me in an airplane more times than I can count. Wah-tterrr is a gibberish, but wah-dderrr works.

My husband grew up in a different part of the country than me so there is a war of words for sofa vs couch and soda vs pop, between us, lol.

Sometimes I start throwing out Davenport (for couch) and pocketbook (for purse) to up the ante.

My grandmother always called the sofa the “dav”
edited to say that she was from Missouri and lived her adult life in Ohio.

 

[Zing]

Hotdish or casserole?

When I first moved to the big city after a sheltered upbringing in South Dakota, a very heterogenous culture of Scandahoovian Lutherans, my coworker always said a certain word under her breath so I thought she was cursing. I won't tell you how long I thoiught "chicharrones" was a swear word.

We have family in Norfolk, Virginia. They tell me I mispronounce it when I say Nore-foLk (I pronounce the F, O, L, K.)

 

[NewlyCreative]

Hotdish or casserole?

When I first moved to the big city after a sheltered upbringing in South Dakota, a very heterogenous culture of Scandahoovian Lutherans, my coworker always said a certain word under her breath so I thought she was cursing. I won't tell you how long I thoiught "chicharrones" was a swear word.

We have family in Norfolk, Virginia. They tell me I mispronounce it when I say Nore-foLk (I pronounce the F, O, L, K.)

You betcha, Casserole of course

Door wall or sliding glass door?

Norfolk accents sound heavily southern to me compared to the VA DC suburbs.

 

[NewlyCreative]

My grandmother always called the sofa the “dav”
edited to say that she was from Missouri and lived her adult life in Ohio.

Yep - I learned these from my grandma too. Davenport was a famous furniture maker in the 1900s and people used to say Davenport to mean couch similar to saying Kleenex to mean a tissue.

 

[MelissaG]

This is very interesting. I'm from Alberta Canada. I've trained myself out of saying "eh" for the most part (though I slip sometimes). I do catch myself occasionally saying something with an Albertan accent or even a bit from the east which is heavily influenced by the gaelic people that moved there. I couldn't point out exactly where but I know it when I hear it.

Here's the thing, I've been living in Louisiana since 2008. so I've noticed that sometimes I say things the way they do down here. I've started saying y'all. My sister says I've picked up a bit of a southern accent.

It depends where in the south you are and who you are talking to. Some have lived here their whole lives and sound like they're from the north. Some speak in a long round about drawl that I find maddening because it takes them forever to say things . Things like "make some groceries" rather than "buy some groceries". Purrn-sill instead of pencil. Er-ange instead or Orange. That sort of thing. It's much more likely to hear that kind of speech from one of the ghettos than other area.
Then you also have the coon*** (don't worry, none that I've ever met that live out in the swamps care if you refer to them that way. They wear it as a badge of honor). They are extremely cajun and very difficult to understand (at least for me) with a very heavy acadian french accent that's been influenced by some local cherokee and a dash of british english. I find the words tend to be mumbled or drawn together in one long sentence without pauses. Most southern is influenced by drawn out words with a slight nasal sound.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

@Zing the local pronunciation of Norfolk is Nor-f...ck.

 

[KiwiMoose]

@Zing the local pronunciation of Norfolk is Nor-f...ck.

Oh! Kitten love!

 

[Zing]

@Zing the local pronunciation of Norfolk is Nor-f...ck.

I know! My relatives correct me.
*clutches pearls