The Coffee House

[smoke665]

I didn't know I had a southern accent til I went to college north of here and got told so.

The majority of Anglo Saxon population of the south traces back to English, Irish, Scot and a dash of German. I've heard it said that the dialect is a mixture of Elizabethian English, Creole, and African. Which might explain some of the similarities among the rural areas of the NE. (I was told once by an older gentleman in Massachusetts that our accents were the same but it was to damned cold there to talk so slow)

 

[davidharmier60]

I use fixin to online but hardly ever in reality. Anyone who has ever heard Shirley Q Liquor knows "ask you momma how she been".

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[Dean_Gretsch]

It's funny that I used to get asked where I was from in Oklahoma much more often than I do here in Pennsylvania. I would have thought my Kentucky brogue would blend in with the southwestern accent than here. Another reason they call it Pennsyltucky I suppose

 

[SquarePeg1]

I nevah get ahsked wheya I'm frum.

 

[snowbear140 71]

Just got back from a lovely walk only to see a message, my mum has had a fall so I am off to the hospital to see what has happend.

Glad she's doing well.

 

[limr50 3]

I was once asked where I was from. I was back in the New York area, so I just told them the town I was from (which was just one or two towns over from where I was, so I knew they would know of the town.) She said, "I meant, where were you from before you lived here?" I said I had moved around a little, lived in a few places. Finally she got more specific, "Yeah, but what country are you from?" That's when I realized that she thought I had a foreign accent and was not born in the States.

The funny thing was, she was the one with a slight accent that sounded like English was perhaps not her first language. I had just gotten back to the States after living overseas, and apparently, it was still very easy for me to unconsciously mimic her speech.

Which, by the way, is very common. It's a natural behavior to unconsciously "borrow" the speech patterns or accent of someone you're talking to when you feel a connection or are trying to create a connection. We don't even realize we are doing it. Sometimes we do it with gestures and body postures, too. It's called mirroring.

 

[smoke665]

@Dean_Gretsch been many years since I traveled PA, but I seem to remember there was a huge difference between the way people talked in Philly vs Pittsburg.

 

[tirediron]

"Where are you from?"

"My mother"

end of discussion!

 

[snowbear140 71]

Don't change your avatar at the same time or we won't know who you are.

Dave? Dave?? Dave's not here.

Or put at the bottom, the artist formerly known as (Fuji)Dave.

"Dave. What are you doing, Dave" -- HAL, 2010

I nevah get ahsked wheya I'm frum.

Why, donchooknow, I'm from Bawler, Merlin,

 

[snowbear140 71]

There is a statue of William Wallace ("Braveheart") in Baltimore's Druid Hill Park. One year after the annual memorial service at the statue, my parents and I went to the Inner Harbor, a series of shops and restaurants along with the National Aquarium and the Maryland Science Center. We were in kilts and getting a few stares and smiles (from the lasses). While standing at a fudge shop, watching the guys performing (tossing the paddles in the air and chanting), one of them saw dad in his kilt, and asked him to say something. I don't recall exactly what dad said, but the fudge man said "I love your accent!" Dad replied "Oh, you like a DC accent?" --Crickets.

 

[snowbear140 71]

@Dean_Gretsch been many years since I traveled PA, but I seem to remember there was a huge difference between the way people talked in Philly vs Pittsburg.

Two different states!

There's a big difference in the local accents and dialects of the Baltimore area are different from Maryland's DC suburbs. The people in the three southern MD counties (that have been there a while) and the Eastern Shore (DelMarVa peninsula - east side of the Chesapeake Bay) have a slightly different accent, though it tends to sound more like Baltimore.

 

[limr50 3]

@Dean_Gretsch been many years since I traveled PA, but I seem to remember there was a huge difference between the way people talked in Philly vs Pittsburg.

There is definitely a difference. I lived in Pittsburgh for 4 years and that is one of the dialects that rubbed off on me. Not so much the pronunciation, but some vocabulary and a few weird grammatical structures. The only real pronunciation that I changed was for the name of Andrew Carnegie. Growing up in NY, I always heard of "CARnegie Hall" and assumed that was also the pronunciation of the man's name. Alas, it is not. It's 'car-NEG-ie.' I still use the NY pronuncation for the concert hall in Manhattan, but otherwise, it's the Pittsburgh (and probably correct) pronunciation.

As for phrases: "My hair needs cut." or "The cats need fed." Also, sidewalks and roads can be "slippy" in the winter.

Some things that did NOT stick: gumband (for rubber band), pop (for soda), or adding an 'r' to words that didn't already have one (warsh the car).

 

[snowbear140 71]

pop? Is Your Significant Other A Foreigner? Do You Speak His/Her Language?

 

[smoke665]

My father in law (Midwestern) still refers to soft drinks as SodiPop.

 

[davidharmier60]

All well and good. I be fixin to go to work.


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