Humorous Speech Variations In Regions Of U.S.
Posted: Tuesday, January 06, 2009
by Joel Hendon
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Some countries have several dialects which are so intermingled that much of the population learns two or more them. And often these are so different that they cannot be understood if you know only one. Like two entirely different languages. We are now becoming a multi-language nation. But this is not what out article is about. We are concerned with the different pronunciations of words, as well as the different grammatical usages. Often some of these are referred to as accents, or brogues. Residents of Great Britain have their well recognized English brogue.
But apart from the widespread "yankee" accent, some places such as Minnesota, has their own unmistakable pronouncing of their state name, Minne so' ta. There are slight variations from region to region in the North. Parts of Indiana seem to have their own but difficult to describe.
Moving on to the Northeast, New England states, there is no possible way not to recognize these people, especially those from Massachusetts and Maine. They drop the "R" sound in many words, such as "I'll pike the ky" (translation: I'll park the car). I may be wrong but I think that the states primarily in the west and center midsection of the nation probably speak just plain English. I suppose they set the standard and are most often chosen for radio and television announcers.
Now let's begin with my old and beloved South! I imagine that no one butchers the King's English more than we do. We are reported to have a southern brogue or drawl. Of course, the drawl applies to those who speak slowly. I never had that part of the problem. There are variations in the southern speech. Those in lower Louisiana, probably influenced by the Cajuns, who have a special way of speaking and of using he English language. I can't explain the sound of the words they use, you'll just have to go down in the bayous for a while. Though I served in the army with 3 of the critters from New Orleans and I remember well how they sounded. All three were nice guys.
Then there are the people over near the east coast, especially in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Their pronunciation is about standard but many of their common phrases are what I call, uncommon. All across the south, there are phrases which people use regularly that probably aren't used or maybe even understood in other places. A phrase that I use all the time meaning that is a lot of something is: "That's a right smart." of whatever it is. But in the areas I just mentioned, they replace it with: That's right much." Maybe, their term is better. From my area, if food tastes as if it needs more salt, we express it as tasting "flat". I don't know where that might have originated. But those on the east coast tell you it tastes "fresh". When I quizzed them about why they said that, they asked if I didn't know the difference in sea water and fresh water! I also found that many use a really strange expression. A young man under my supervision at a factory when we first moved there, showed me a piece of material he was trying to match up. And he said, "See, if you lay it next to the other this way, it looks shaded, but if you turn it this other way, it "be's" the same. Not nearly all of them use that term.
So, we can now discuss, me and the old south and some terminology which I grew up with, some of which I have retained. Some I have heard, but never adopted, by old timers include "holp" used in sentences for helped. "I holp him put the thing together." Another is "din't" meaning of course, didn't, or did not. But there are others which I've always used and still use when I feel like it, is "y'all" which is a perfectly understood contraction of you all. We've often been criticized and joked about for that phrase, when people accuse us of using it even if we are speaking to one person. But that is not exactly accurate. If a man is at my house for instance as he leaves, I'm likely to say "Y'all come to see us". But any southerner knows perfectly well that you mean for him to come back and bring his family.
Also some, and I include myself, pronounce words such as gas, ass, pass, etc., with one blunt syllable whereas most uneducated folk say "pa-is, a'is, ga'is and so on. Eye and my are pronounced ey'ee and my'ee. We have actually made improvements in some parts of the English language. For instance, in most areas of the country someone may ask another a question and if the recipient failed to hear it well, will say, "I'm sorry, I didn't understand what you said, can you please repeat it?" Someone could miss a train listening to a sentence like that. Here we have shortened it down to one quick specific word understood everywhere. We say, "hunh"? We also alter the sound of the word "here" if we are being serious , like with a child or dog. We say firmly, "come hyunh".
I hope all, regardless of wherever you live, knows that I have written this without any intent to criticize or ridicule any one or any group of people. I am quite sure that my desecration of the English language is as bad, or worse, than anyone else. I just wanted to say that I had holp some. "Y'all come, now."
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Top-level comments on this article: (6 total)Hi Joel.I love this article. I would have liked some more examples. Not only do I love words, I love how people use them.The West has it's share of diehard manglers of the Queen's English, don't think they don't. Much of it probably came west with the settlers. "Din't" is fairly common as is "y'all."I would always get a kick out of my step-dad's relatives from Texas. They would say "chefs" for "shelves" and a gopher wasn't a burrowing mamal, it was a turtle.We have a lot of Navajo where I live and I love to listen to them speak both English and Navajo. They impart a softness and dignity to English that just isn't there most of the time.Thanks for a fun article.DianneThank you Dianne, for reading and commenting. Yes I agree, so do I enjoy these different colloquialisms. I made a speech once about this very thing, but simply sticking to my area. And the audience was also from here, but I had them rolling in the aisles, believe it or not, laughing at our own grammer and pronounciation boo-boos. Like "tars" for tires, "tard" for tired, sho nuff for sure enough. It is easier to make it hilarious by speaking it and emphasizing it than it is to write about. Strangely also, I went with a girl a few times in Chicago while in the army, and she encouraged me to talk, she just "loved" what she called my southern drawl. And I didn't even know I had one. (grin)
I really loved your article. I lived in NY State for a good majority of my life. I did move to Ohio for approximately 3 years when I was 18. Had to get out and see the world. I was in culture shock, not to mention not understanding the terms they used. They all thought I was the dumb one. One of the phrases they used "would you like a sack with that?" In NY, "would you like a bag for that?" (Grocery shopping). To me, at the age of 18, a sack was a "sack of potatoes". One other term they used was "tennis shoes" for what I call sneakers. To me, tennis shoes were, tennis shoes, not sneakers. While down there, I found the people to be very friendly, unlike the area I grew up in NY. In NY, people stayed to themselves, maybe from fear that items or their life would be stolen. If I could do it again, I would move back to Ohio. Currently, I have a fiance who is British. We run into the common misunderstandings of what you call an item or how you pronounce it. Our current word is "garage" or "garriage" (like carriage). I'm sure you understand. I really enjoyed your article.Hi Lisa, thanks for the input, and for reading my article. Yes it is strange, the difference usages certain sections have. I can give you another on the sack/bag item. Here in the south, in years past...I haven't heard it used in a long time, many called the brown paper bags, "paper pokes'. Don't ask me where that came from. But I too, have called most bags, sacks. Paper sacks, tow sacks (burlap bags) and so on. I took a good deal of ribbing when I was in the army, about my talk.
Joel god job on speech and slang. I guess"we all talk funny" at times, like "whats up", "How ya doin".Right, Robert. I know I have a bunch of little tid bits that are not used by many. Thanks for reading.
Joel, I loved your article! Wonderful to hear an assessment of the various American dialects and oddities by a Southerner. But you never mentioned New York or Philly! People think we sound the same but we don't. That would be like comparing Rocky to the Nanny. While New Yorkers send everything through their nose, we in Philly are much more selective. We only send some sounds through our nose![By the way, your friend (the Yankee) was correct in his pronounciation of the word I.Consisting of 2 distinct vowel sounds rapidly blended together in one syllable, the long i sound as well as the long a and the long o, in addition to a few other vowels sounds, are called diphthongs. When pronounced properly, indeed they almost sound like two syllables. Didn't mean to get technical but phonetics is one of my specialties.]And you can add this to your list, in the Philly area, we call the sticky bun, a cinnamon bun. And the real cinnamon bun? We don't bother with them becausewe have the best 'Sticky Buns' in the whole world as well as cheesesteaks, water ice, hoagies, and scrapple! We also were the home to Breyers Ice Cream. The real beauty of Breyers was that it was 100% natural, meaning no gum or fillers of any kind. And then, about 3 years, Breyers (having been in existence for 140 years) was bought by another company. They added gum; we complained; they don't care; so I switched to Turkey Hill Philadelphia Style Ice Cream Now there's an article!Thank you Nancy, for the great comment. I kindly envy you Pennsylvanians, except for your cold weather. The Pensylvania Dutch and Amish people are undoubtedly he best cooks in the whole world.
Joel, in South Carolina, we speak Gullah, a version of African languages created by the slaves. "Hunna gwine giv' e gate tine." (Trust me, it's a ccomplement!)Thanks Walter, I take your word for the complement. :o) It is truly amazing how even small areas can get certain phrases and pronunciations going. I enjoy reading those things and I got a lot entertainment from talking with guys from other locations when I served in the army.
He is correct. I too have the experience starting with MI...Mass...NY...Wis...GA...SC...TX...RI...AZ...CA...Thank you Revruc1 for reading and commenting.
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