Are you a yankee?

[JustaDumbBlonde]

100% Dixie. My lawd!

To answer the burnin' question posed in the thread, in Louisiana we say pa-khan ... that is, everybody I know does except my family, who call them puckernuts.

As far as yankee ... a coonass friend of mine told me once that anybody north of the I-10 corridor is a yankee. Seems a fair assessment.

[Ax]

I'm a Detroit native and I say p'kahn. I also drink pop.

Years ago I read that people from overseas call all Americans "yankees." To Americans, "Yankees" are people from the Union states during the WBTS. Northerners call people from New England "Yankees," while New Englanders call people from Vermont "Yankees." And in Vermont, people who eat pie for breakfast are the real true "Yankees."

[rockrr]

Good one.

I was born in the Pacific Northwest but moved to the south when I was young. I caught hell for my yankee accent in school. Later I moved back to Washington and caught hell for my southern accent. Sometimes you just can’t win ;-)

[Daffynition]

I got : *100% Dixie. Is General Lee your grandfather?!*

I’ve lived in New England as a swamp Yankee most of my life. Heh.

[6ppc]

A good buddy of mine claims that anyone who lives north of I-20 is a yankee.

[Erasmus]

According to the late author of A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole, there's a whole neighborhood of folks in NOLA that talk like they're from Brooklyn.

[Daffynition]

LOL...my neighbor, who is a native of New Orleans were talking about what one calls the front steps of a house...we agreed it was *stoop.*

Many tears ago, George Carlin did a routine with regional phrases and accents. It was the most brilliant piece of comedy...since that one time viewing [perhaps the Ed Sullivan shoe/]...I’ve not been able to find it anywhere.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

I’m a Panagringa...Born in Panama of American (gringo) parents. I am living in paradise.

[no gnu taxes]

I lived in Louisiana for awhile and a Cajun told me that the real definition of a Yankee was anyone from north of I-10.

Yes, I was from Monroe and heard that a lot. I have also heard that the definition of a Yankee is anybody who happens to live north of where you live. Of course, go to South Florida and you can't get much more yankee than that.

[Daffynition]

I surprised myself...found the Carlin routine: [NSFW ... it’s Carlin]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=81a_1282702999

[PowderMonkey]

Reminds me of my uncle. Omaha born and raised. During WW II he trained with the 101st Airborne at Camp Toccoa, Ga. When he returned home, he came back with a Georgia accent. Whereas, everybody in the family talked like either Henry Fonda or Johnny Carson, they complained that they could no longer understand him. For an example of a true central Virginia accent, just listen to Hollywood actor Randolph Scott in some of his old Western films. He was originally from Lynchburg, Virginia.

[Tea Party Hobbit]

pee-KAHN.

Lived in California till I was in high school (mostly Bay Area); since then, have lived in CT, OH, IL, and now NC.

Mother from SW OH (an area founded mostly by Southerners, with some Southern influence on vocabulary and accent). Father native Californian (Central Valley).

We always thought Californians had no accent.

15% Dixie on the test.

Don’t think I picked up any Chicago accent. More than one Chicagoan, however, thought I sounded British!

[Irenic]

I lived in Louisiana for awhile and a Cajun told me that the real definition of a Yankee was anyone from north of I-10.
***********************
hahahaha! That’s funny as L!

[Hiddigeigei]

I’m from the Maryland/Virginia area and did my undergraduate work at Chapel Hill, N. C. in the early 1950s. The most beautiful American-English accent, to my ear, I’ve every heard was spoken by upper-class North Carolina women. Ah, memories!

I pronounce the word, pee-khan (neither syllable accented).

A test used during the Civil War to spot infiltrators was whether the name of the tree (Tilia americana) was “basswood” or “linden.”

[FreedomForce]

“Pecan” isn’t the litmus test. It’s how someone pronounces “oil” that matters.

btw,

Pecan = puh KAHN
Oil = ol...nah, that’s not it...ohl...closer but still not it...sorry, I’m not sure there is a way to spell it phonetically the way it’s supposed to be pronounced. It’s not pronounced oyl—that’s how yankees say it.

[C. Edmund Wright]

The upper class women of NC do indeed have a fabulous accent. Comedian-speaker Jeanne Robertson is a great example of it, as is Dot Helms, the widow of the Senator Jesse Helms. Liddy Dole managed to keep a good accent too, but she became such a moderate beltway insider I lost affinity for hers.

But you are right, pee-kahn equally accented is the NC upper class pronunciation as much as pih-KAHN is.

[piroque]

.I thought it was some kind of crayfish.

dats craw-dads crawfish or mudbugs