Posted on 09/18/2015 9:57:02 AM PDT by chasio649
The other day, my son asked why there are such a variety of accents in the country. Why does a fellow from Mississippi have a twang that’s different from a fellow in Texas?
Long ago, I asked my father a similar question. He pointed out that it isn’t just in America – a wide range of dialects and accents are common for French, Arabic, whatever.
In recent days, some interesting pieces have appeared online. One in Slate has a list of the top slang terms from every state. Here’s what was included for the Mid-South:
Arkansas: “tump” -- to tip over or dump out. Louisiana: “banquette” – sidewalk. Mississippi: “nabs” -- peanut butter crackers. Tennessee: “whirlygust” -- a strong wind. The words from Arkansas and Mississippi are familiar. Not so those from Louisiana and Tennessee.
Humans are so inventive, language doesn’t have to be spoken words. Slate has posted a video shot in a mountainous region of Turkey where residents whistle long range conversations when their shouts won’t carry. Some 10,000 people still use this method of communication.
And if you want to get into some truly odd language characteristics, head down to northwest Brazil. There, the Piraha people speak a language unrelated to any other. Christian missionaries have spent agonizing decades trying to learn the intricacies of the Piraha’s tongue and culture.
A 2007 profile in the New Yorker says Piraha is “based on just eight consonants and three vowels, (and is) one of the simplest sound systems known. Yet it possesses such a complex array of tones, stresses, and syllable lengths that its speakers can dispense with their vowels and consonants altogether and sing, hum, or whistle conversations.”
Further, the Piraha, “have no numbers, no fixed color terms, no perfect tense, no deep memory, no tradition of art or drawing, and no words for ‘all,’ ‘each,’ ‘every,’ ‘most,’ or ‘few.’”
Why has this group been able to resist modernity? Largely because they “consider all forms of human discourse other than their own to be laughably inferior, and they are unique among Amazonian peoples in remaining monolingual.”
When “This Old House” was first broadcast nationally, the rest of the country couldn’t understand the heavy Boston accents of Norm and the rest of the crew. “Cut the board with a saw” sounded like “Caughd da bauhd widda sawyr”.
Do you have any idea how comical some Northern accents sound to Southerners?
Nose to horizontal to even acknowledge your question....I would presume....and i don’t personally find them comical....been around too many good folk from the north...just gonna have the haters and elitist as usual.
“Don’t take poverty away from poor folks.
Good lord, man, it’s all they’ve got!”
And the award for ugliest American accent goes to ...
New Jersey, as spoken around Elizabeth/Newark.
It’s a degraded form of what Archie Bunker spoke.
A friend from Columbia once told me that Mexicans speak a “hillbilly” form of Spanish (her words) that sounds awful to the rest of the people from South and Central America and to people from Spain. I can’t tell the difference, but she could easily pick out where spanish-speaking people were born or how they learned spanish as a second language.
Lima is full of naggers and hillbillies. I am neither, thank you very much. The hillbillies I knew there were thieves, liars, and constantly tried to screw your girlfriend in a heartbeat. The only good thing about Lima is the Lima Army Tank Plant [M1A1 Abrams]. I was born there in St. Rita’s hospital, and I’m glad I’m long gone. What a dump.
Right. There are often variations in usage. When I was a kid, my father would frequently use the word “poke” for “paper bag.” My mother always seemed offended by that and told him not to say it He diid anyway. I never understood the problem until I learned that “poke” is also used for “scrotum.”
“They’ll hate it and deny it, but it is from the huge influx of African slaves and a southern drawl is simply African English of the 1800s.”
You are so full of shit it’s not even funny.
Ya got to put it in the 710 cap, or so the blond said.
As they say in Southern Germany, "Dawnker-Shane!"
That was funny, I rented a VHS of This Old House, it was so old, Richard Trethewy had hair!
Is that right?
but it is from the huge influx of African slaves and a southern drawl is simply African English of the 1800s."
No. Linguistically, the Southern accent is most closely related to the British accent, which might explain why, IMO, English actors tend to do excellent Southern impersonations.
American actors usually screw them up.
I’m from Louisiana. I was attracted to my husband because of his weird accent. (He is from New Hampshire). Of course, I speak without accent, like all of my friends and family in Louisiana. But that Yankee accent takes some getting used to.
Poke Salad Annie? [The song]
I had a Yankee once say to me, “Oh, you don’t have much of an accent at all”, in an approving tone.
I said, “Well, thanks for telling me. I guess I’ll have to work on that, won’t I?”
LOL
“You guys” is clearly sexist. A Southern Gentleman would never insult the Ladies by implying they are not included. The problem resides in the plural but singular sounding, “you”.
Rubio must have some Castilian in him.
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