Posted on 07/09/2010 6:31:05 PM PDT by navysealdad
Your daughter has shown great respect.
I love to thrown out the southern words to the haughty Yankee. The ones that really get them is ya'll and "What we gonna ride on". LOL
At first, I was wondering what the hell the researcher was talking about. (incidentally, being from Long Island, I never met ANYONE who pronounces it with a hard “g.” That’s a Brooklyn Jew thing.) Then I realized what she’s talking about:
It’s not terribly commonplace, and it’s almost more of a mannerism than an accent, since kids develop it as teenagers trying to act cool, then often lose it as they get older.
The author makes it sound like a southern double-vowel, like , “Hayow Nayow Brayown Cayow.” It’s not at all. It’s closer to putting the diphthongs backwards, so instead of starting with your mouth rather open, and closing it towards, for instance, a “w” sound (such as the legends “cawffee”), they start with their mouths relatively closed, and move to an open vowel, (like “Cwahffe” or, if you say the first vowel really fast, “Coh-ahfee”).
If you think about it, all “long” vowels are diphthongs (double vowels) in modern American English. And yes, this accent reverses almost ALL of them. So, “gonna” becomes “gwahnna” insread of “gohwna”, “fake” becomes “fyehk” instead of “fehyk” and “right” ... well, I don’t even know how to write that, but it moves from the back of the mouth towards the front, instead of from the front to the back (”rahyt”).
What’s really wierd is how similar the Charleston, SC and Charlestown, MA accents are. Most people think of Yankee v Dixie as being opposite, but it’s more like they grew in opposite directions. When you get to the real, real, old (”thick”) accents, they start growing more similar.
For instance, you’re not “weeniemonger.” :^) (Neither “weenie” nor “monger” are probably IN, anyway, I guess.)
What part of IN are you from? I’ve heard that culture-wise, IN is Louisville in the South (and thus, fairly dixie-ish to the Northerner), and Chicago in the North, with Ohio in the middle.
I live north of Interstate 70. The Mason Dixon line of Indiana. Nothing like Ohio and the nutroots Democrats there, far more conservative.
You may move a LA boy, but getting the LA out of him is very hard.
BTW Chicago types in Lake County in the far north west corner. Gets conservative as you go south and somewhat east.
Got a 25 per cent Dixie (am nr Boston MA). Pronunciation-wise,
def. a Boston accent for me (examples: “what,’re you retahhhhhhhhhhhded?”...”wickid pissa”...—a soda is a
“tonic”; “route” rhymes with “boot” not “doubt”—and up here
we never call something “highway”, it’s “Route 128” not
“Highway 128”)
Your mother’s sister is you “awnt” (not “ant”)
But I do like BBQ and country music; vote Republican (or as close as we can get to one up here)
And of course while people like me can be called Yankees
and there’s a NH-based magazine of New England living called Yankee, the one “Yankee” I don’t like is a baseball
team from the Bronx.
you= your (oops_
My sister married a Yankee when she was in the Navy and he used to tell his family (about me), "you just won't believe how she talks"! When his family would come visit they would laugh at my accent, not in a kind way either, so I'd really lay it on thick:)
I like to listen to the Cajuns talk. Their acccent has a certain cadence that is soothing. Can't understand half of what they're saying, but I like how they say it!
95% Dixie. Is General Lee your grandfather? No, my cousins married his sons. The other cousin baptized him. Namesake served under his father in the Revolution. One of his soldiers loved him so much he named his son after him - General Joseph Eggleston Johnston. Lee replaced him. Live in the Sovereign Republic of Texas.
ping
100% Dixie. Is General Lee your grandfather?!
100% Dixie. Is General Lee your grandfather?!
That, and telling folks you packed your cah down the boulevad.
Or when I ask for an ice cold beah!
I definitely say “Lawwn Guylind”. I was born in Brooklyn, but moved out to LI at 3. However, my father is an Italian American Brooklynite, and his accent, and familys, is classic Brooklynese. I know I picked up a lot of stuff from him so my accent is a little exaggerated.
When I go up to see everyone I’m always amazed at how strong the accents are, and I come back “rejuvenated” in my talk.
My husband deceased many years ago, and I recently found a cassette tape of him talking. When I put it on, I couldn’t believe it. He has a lawwn guyland accent too! (I never noticed it before....)
My results: "33% Dixie. You are definitely a Yankee." Quite frankly, I'm surprised I am ANY % Dixie, as the closest I've ever been to living in the NASCAR belt was Miami.
I beg to differ. Having grown up in Washington State, as far as I'm concerned Yankee or Dixie are all Easterners.
I got a shocking 50%. Disney World and a Chattanooga motel are the limits of my experience south of the Mason-Dixon.
I originally put “either” for Caramel and route.
I also interchange with sneakers(this is what the tv calls them)/tennis shoes(this is what my mom and her’s called them)/gym shoes. And yard/garage/rummage sale. And water/drinking fountain.
Changing a few of those interchangeable answers I was able to reduce my score to a very low 4%.
http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have
This one gave me a full red bar for “The Inland North”.
http://www.gotoquiz.com/results/what_american_accent_do_you_really_have
Full red bar for “Northern”.
Heck, I’m from Canada and I’m 33% Dixie -— add a little bit of my heart and that would make it closer to 60%....
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