Galt's Gulch

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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 11 years, 9 months ago
    I spoke slowly with a Southern drawl when I moved from Texas to NJ when I was nine. When I went to the ear/nose/throat specialist, my doctor asked my mother whether I had a speech impediment. I politely said, "No, sir." without such a drawl. My mom promptly slapped the doctor.
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  • Posted by $ Snezzy 11 years, 9 months ago
    In his column Todd Starns says, "Bless their hearts." When I moved from UpNorth to DownSouth I quickly learned that is a polite phrase that's used in place of some coarser phrase that could have been used instead.

    Local accent is particularly handy for hiding one's education. Sometimes it's not immediately obvious that the ignorant-sounding redneck has a PhD in mathematics, or mechanical engineering, or both. Perhaps he likes it that way.
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  • Posted by RonC 11 years, 9 months ago
    In my youth I moved from Ohio to Texas. I was promptly taught there was nothing wrong with a Yankee that a couple of years in Texas couldn't fix. I 'magine that's so.

    Now that I'm back in Ohio I have found Yankees think people with southern accents are not as smart as people from the north. I have used this to great advantage in negotiations. I love an ambush! That moment when all the bright people in the room discover they have been out flanked by someone that seemed so...dim.

    Truly, that prejudice is no less discriminating than any other.
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  • Posted by eddieh 11 years, 9 months ago
    Hey I love talking to people with accents but the problem is I start inadvertently start talking the way they do and I think I offend them sometimes.
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    • Posted by gwilhelm56 11 years, 9 months ago
      I do that too, I try not, but in my profession (actor,) it does come in handy.
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      • Posted by skidance 11 years, 9 months ago
        I'm afraid I do the same thing.
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        • Posted by $ Susanne 11 years, 9 months ago
          On the other hand it helps you fit in like a local...
          Sometimes too much. Italy, a few years ago, got "stuck" at the family property for about 2 1/2 months. When we finally made it back to Rome to fly out, people were amazed at my "quaint, colloquial" accent, like I was from the sticks or something. Well... the property is isolated, 10 km from the closest town (and it *is* the sticks)...

          Now, picking up various American (and British) accents have always been easy - Worked as a baker for a family from Liverpool, and because they were the only people I was around, didn't realize I had picked up their accent (in Reno Nevada, of all places!) until I went back for my grandfather's funeral and got called on it. But if you told me I would do the same in a "foreign" language, I would have laughed until Italy.
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          • Posted by richrobinson 11 years, 9 months ago
            Our area has a lot of Italians and they tell me that some dialects are so thick that some Italians have trouble understanding each other. Did you notice that?
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            • Posted by $ Susanne 11 years, 9 months ago
              Oh GOD yes... of course, my Italian is dialect heavy, so it's hard to understand some people... but at times you think they're speaking a diffferent language.
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              • Posted by richrobinson 11 years, 9 months ago
                I have a customer who came here from Italy many years ago and yet still speaks with a thick accent. I was having trouble understanding him one day so I asked another customer who is Italian to translate. He said "are you kidding, even his Italian sucks". the 2 men knew each other and got a good laugh out of it.
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                • Posted by plusaf 11 years, 9 months ago
                  First wife and I vacationed several times in Scotland. We rented a car and made our own itinerary, so occasionally we got lost on some 'country roads.'

                  Stopped and asked a guy how to get to a nearby town. He patiently explained for a minute or two.

                  When he finished, I apologized and said that, because of his accent and my ears, I did not understand what he'd said, and could he repeat it again but a bit more slowly?

                  He very kindly repeated, word-for-word (or noise for noise) EXACTLY what he'd said the first time, and I still could not understand one word of it. We thanked him and politely drove away looking for maps and signs.
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                  • Posted by richrobinson 11 years, 9 months ago
                    That's funny. What time was it? maybe he had blown the froth off a couple.
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                    • Posted by plusaf 11 years, 9 months ago
                      :)... mid-afternoon, as I recall, but on a two-lane blacktop perhaps a mile or more outside anything resembling a 'town'. I didn't get the sense he'd imbibed anything but a brogue you couldn't cut with a chain saw. :)
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                      • Posted by $ Susanne 11 years, 9 months ago
                        Talk about bringing back memories...

                        Had an online aquaintance from Edinburgh (Ed'n'brouog) - elequant, professional, common intrests, and having realized I could make a side trip up there called him to see if we could hook up...

                        He sounded just as cute as I pictured - I think - as I could not understand one word of three, and the other 2 weren't much better. Then again, I think he was having the same problems with my "Californian accent"...

                        'Twas a long time in the past, but still remember it fondly.
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  • Posted by Ranter 11 years, 9 months ago
    When I first took my future wife from Philadelphia to Alabama to meet my mother, I had to translate for her. My wife was born in Italy, moved to nort Joyzey when she was sixteen. She went through high school and college in New Jersey and is superbly fluent in English (as well as Italian and French). I remember the blank look on her face when we went next door to thank the neighbor for being such good neighbors and alerting us any time Mom was in medical difficulty, and she said, "Aw, honey chile, it don' mehk no nevah myn'." My wife asked me "What did she say?"
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    • Posted by richrobinson 11 years, 9 months ago
      That's a great story Ranter. I have always been impressed by people who can communicate in multiple languages. I had 3 years of German in High School and I am sure I would be lost if I had to speak German with someone.
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  • Posted by $ sjatkins 11 years, 9 months ago
    Why, not a thang, darling. I grew up in NC and though I have been on the left coast for near to 40 years I still miss that soft mush mouth talk. I wasn't too partial to folks thinking anything not about church, kids, work or hunting and fishing was too controversial. So I ran away when I turned 18.
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  • Posted by fivedollargold 11 years, 9 months ago
    $5Au was taught that "You" was used in London, which, of course, came to dominate English the way Parisian dialect became standard French. "Thou" was common to another English city, probably York. Never checked to see if this is accurate. Perhaps someone can enlighten us.
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    • Posted by $ blarman 11 years, 9 months ago
      That is correct. Thou (now completely out of use except in the Bible) was once the common but respectful form of "you", where you was a familiar form.
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      • Posted by $ jlc 11 years, 9 months ago
        Actually, you have it backwards. "You" is the formal/respectful form and "thou" is the informal/intimate form. The use of "thou" in the Bible, when speaking to god is part of a tradition that indicates that speech with god is an intimate personal interaction (hence not disrespectful). The remnant usage of 'thee' in archaic phrases in modern speech has introduced the illusion that it is formal rather than the English equivalent of "tu" in Spanish and "du" in German.

        Jan
        (Did renaissance reenactment semi-pro for a couple of summers in England.)
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        • Posted by $ blarman 11 years, 9 months ago
          Correction: you are right. My wife (linguistics major) also pointed out to me that I had it backwards. Probably should have asked her first for confirmation. :)
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  • Posted by Notperfect 11 years, 9 months ago
    22 years ago from Texas to Michigan. Wanna know whut they thot bout me. I just tellem' Those from Michigan only got to the letter "A" at least us in Texas got to the letter "Si".
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 11 years, 9 months ago
    I've heard the explanation is that when radio and TV started, they based the neutral US accent here, so we don't have any accent. When I travel, though, WI people identify me and vice versa, so I don't think it's true.
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    • Posted by johnpe1 11 years, 9 months ago
      in my experience, CG, neutral is in western New
      York state. I studied this aurally when I was young
      and dated a young woman from Ontario, NY, just
      east of Rochester. I had studiously erased my TN
      accent, using night-time AM radio for clues. in NY,
      they could not tell my origins until they saw the
      license plate on the car. -- j

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      • Posted by CircuitGuy 11 years, 9 months ago
        I loved how in the 80s there was single-station programming, and as the sun set the daytimers shut down to make way for distant stations. A different world came in, with talk shows on WSB Atlanta 750. Long-distance was equivalent to $1/min, so calling was out of the question for me.

        I think you're right about western NY, and all the Great Lakes area. I think the Great Lakes area is changing though. My wife's grandparents sound more Mid-Atlantic than younger people. It seems like people older than my parents, older than 70, pronounce the short o, as in "responsible" much more like the rest of the country, which sounds like respawnsible to me. People under 70 say it closer to the way national newscasters pronounce the short a.

        You can hear a difference in very old movies and recordings.
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