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Victoria Silverwolf
Diocesan Ecclesiarch of the Sacred Order of Jabootu
  
USA
80 Posts |
Posted - 10/19/2005 : 12:54:32 AM
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Sort of spun off from the coke/soda/pop thing . . .
Any interesting language differences where you live? One that really caught my ear when I moved to the American South was the phrase "ink pen" for the thing you write with. This puzzled me, until I realized that many Southerners say the words "pen" and "pin" exactly alike, so the phrase "ink pen" makes it clear which one you are talking about.
A few people around here, with stronger Southern accents, say the word "our" exactly like the word "air."
It strikes me as weird that people around here mean a warm cap when they say "toboggon" and not something you ride on in the snow.
Reality is a crutch for people who can't face up to science fiction. |
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Sandy
Diocesan Ecclesiarch of the Sacred Order of Jabootu
  
USA
84 Posts |
Posted - 10/19/2005 : 09:06:52 AM
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quote: Originally posted by Victoria Silverwolf
Sort of spun off from the coke/soda/pop thing . . .
Any interesting language differences where you live?
Well, I found out one year that if you go to a Dunkin Donuts in Boston and ask for 'coffee', make sure you ask for HOT coffee or they might give you this wierd iced drink.
Oh, yeah: and no one outside of the South will serve 'Sweet tea'.
-Sandy |
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PaulaJohnson
Minister of the Sacraments of Jabootu
 
USA
32 Posts |
Posted - 10/19/2005 : 09:29:56 AM
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Where I live, the names "Don" and "Dawn" are pronounced alike. It was in my mid-20's when someone pointed out that in other areas, this was not the case.
I still say them the same. The guy who insisted "Dawn" was pronounced differently sounded like a mafia hitman when he said it.
I came, I saw, I was really too tired to deal with it so I just went to bed. |
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John Nowak
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
    
USA
1017 Posts |
Posted - 10/19/2005 : 11:34:40 AM
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I used to work in New York, where 9mm weapons fire means, "Good morning!"
---------- We've always been united in stupidity. That's why there is no hope. But, then again, when has that ever stopped us?
-- hbrennan |
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AnnGora
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
    
252 Posts |
Posted - 10/19/2005 : 11:38:22 AM
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The foremost tenet of Southern speech:
There is no such thing as a one syllable word.
I cringe when I hear some Yankee on film and TV attempt to emulate a true Southern accent. Nine times out of ten they screw it up royally because they just don't get them nuances, ya know what I mean?
She was bred in old Kentucky, but she's just a crumb up here. |
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Bobby-G
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
    
USA
904 Posts |
Posted - 10/19/2005 : 1:43:13 PM
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There are at least several "accents" hear in Chicago -- I'm from the north side, and I don't talk anything like (at least I don't think I do!)the original Mayor Daily or the "Bearz Fans" on SNL -- Oh, don't think Dan Acroyd(sp?)does a very good job of sounding like a Chicagoan in his Blues Brother persona.
With moving about so much these days, I can at least in this area,that people with "south side", "north side" etc, are all no longer living in the places associated with their accents or vernacular.
Rob |
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hbrennan
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
    
Philippines
1455 Posts |
Posted - 10/19/2005 : 5:57:16 PM
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Since I relocated to the Southern part of th US, I noticed one thing that makes me smile. Everyone uses the greeting "Hey" instead of "Hi". Just like the old "Andy Griffith Show"! (Goober says "Hey"!)
"...yet it hadn't destroyed his brain." re: Charles "The Butcher" Benton (1956)
http://henrybrennan.blogspot.com/ |
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John Nowak
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
    
USA
1017 Posts |
Posted - 10/19/2005 : 6:48:41 PM
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I like "y'all" myself. I'm almost tempted to use it.
---------- We've always been united in stupidity. That's why there is no hope. But, then again, when has that ever stopped us?
-- hbrennan |
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hbrennan
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
    
Philippines
1455 Posts |
Posted - 10/19/2005 : 7:55:59 PM
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quote: John Nowack wrote: I like "y'all" myself. I'm almost tempted to use it.
Don't.
(by the way, my blog is back up - for those who hate the concept of "literate")
"...yet it hadn't destroyed his brain." re: Charles "The Butcher" Benton (1956)
http://henrybrennan.blogspot.com/ |
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Bobby-G
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
    
USA
904 Posts |
Posted - 10/19/2005 : 11:33:24 PM
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I'm not sure when it started here in Chicago, but just about everybody I see (and me too)usually say "Hey" instead of "Hi", and I think it may very well be the influence of Andy Griffith.
Rob |
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Neville
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
    
Spain
1590 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2005 : 04:52:26 AM
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Slightly off-topic, but there are quite a lot of differences between Spanish from Spain and Spanish from Latin America. In theory, only intonation, use of some tenses (I would say, for instance "I have fallen" instead of "I fell" for a recent event) and minor vocabulary varies.
In practice, however, it gets more difficult than that. The whole slang is different, end it even changes from country to country, and with it the most popular registers of speech. One of my most frustrating experiences as a viewer was trying to get into Alfonso Cuarón's Y tu mamá también, only to find it completely undecipherable. Damn movie should have been served with subtitles.
To be honest, I don't have such problems with most of the Latin American films that are released in my country, but that one was a very frustrating experience. |
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MikeC
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
    
USA
749 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2005 : 06:02:59 AM
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I understand that the Quebecois dialect of French is also somewhat impenetrable to speakers of 'Mother' French. But, I'm sure that Locquacious can speak on this with authority.
MikeC, sort of like how they subtitle people with thick Louisiana accents...... |
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Ubiq
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
    
USA
347 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2005 : 08:15:12 AM
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quote: Originally posted by John Nowak I like "y'all" myself. I'm almost tempted to use it.
If you do, be sure to use it in the correct gramatical sense of referring to a group. That's one of the things that bugs me about actors trying to sound "Southern", they fling the word "y'all" about with reckless abandon while not even pronouncing it correctly. Strictly speaking, that aposotrophe shouldn't even really be in there as there isn't a pause while saying it, at least not among the people I know who use it. It's really more of a 'yawl' sound than a 'yuh-all'. One person isn't "y'all", it's "you" or even "yeh". Of course, "y'uns" is favored over "y'all" in my particular local.
On another note, "ain't" is a contraction of "am not" and should never be used to refer to a group.
Anyway, to go back to the topic, one that I notice a lot and that just sounds wrong to me is "standing on line".
BM: I should have mentioned this at the beginning. I solve my problems with violence. |
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Neville
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
    
Spain
1590 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2005 : 08:23:09 AM
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| I'm starting to realise why sometimes I find difficult to follow some american movies... BTW, last night I rented an Australian teen horror film, lost things , and the dialogue was quite hard to follow. Do really all Australians like to rush and lower the volume of their sentences? |
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Neville
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
    
Spain
1590 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2005 : 08:24:52 AM
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| Sorry, I meant if all Australians both rush and lower the volume at the end of their sentences. |
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Sandy
Diocesan Ecclesiarch of the Sacred Order of Jabootu
  
USA
84 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2005 : 11:05:30 AM
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quote: Originally posted by Neville
Sorry, I meant if all Australians both rush and lower the volume at the end of their sentences.
It's gotten to the point where I have English subtitles on whenever I watch a british or australian movie. Once they didn't have english subtitles for this brit movie (I forget which one) and after about 15 frustrating minutes I turned on the Spanish subtitles (I speak only a little) and It helped immensely.
Maybe I need to get my ears checked or something.
-Sandy |
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