Posted on 08/24/2019 12:06:15 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Interstate 70, a highway that starts nowhere and ends nowhere, sure seems to have a lot of traffic on it.
‘That PA/OH abomination of verbs just can’t even be stifled in writing.
it’s ubiquitous in Lancaster County; I remember a news headline when I first moved there stated ‘worker wants paid’...shudder...
Poor speech is subjective. Usually said about those they consider less educated than themselves.
As I told my young daughter as we ate our meal at a McDonalds in the middle of Georgia a few decades ago...
(We are Hoosiers; with our own distinct dialect and pronunciation and sentence structure)
She said, as we began to eat, about the folks that took our order, “Dad; they sure talk funny down here.”
I replied, “No; WE are the one’s who talk funny down here.”
Then it’s no wonder that the question is pondered about.
Well; 300 days beats ALWAYS; on the chunk of I65 leading into Louisville!
And ALL the semi’s these days have the data recorders that tattle if they go over the speed limit.
So we folks trying to go 70 are held up for MILES by two semis side by side.
The one on the right doing 64.879 MPH and the one in the ‘passing lane’ doing 64.946 MPH.
In about 5-6 minutes, we can FINALLY get past THAT mess!
From Leakin Park, MD to Cove Fort, UT, baby!
Yes, very tricky to stop and pick them up on the side of the freeway when everybody else wants to keep moving.
Perhaps the Mailbag pickup should be introduced.
Like the trains grabbed the mail from the depot without stopping; the kids should be placed in sturdy canvas bags.
No need to slow down then!
Bump
The milk is yet.
re: “(We are Hoosiers; with our own distinct dialect and pronunciation and sentence structure)”
Like “Warshington” instead of “Washington” ... I’ve noticed before (while in the Ft Wayne area).
yup
droppin’ the ‘G’; too!
No, it’s not subjective and it’s not about being superior. I was COMPLETELY baffled by my husband’s speech at times early on - had no idea what he was talking about (”let” vs “leave” with the dog outside....picture that). Rules and structure are important IF WE ARE TO COMMUNICATE. Otherwise it’s the Tower of Babel, might as well be truly different language.
One will NEVER learn that “structure” in proper English class or the handbooks used. Doesn’t matter where the class is or from where the teacher hails.
Even my husband knows it’s not proper, so does not WRITE it. He speaks it, but it takes a special stubborn ignorance to make the effort to write/type it!
Dollars to donuts you won’t hesitate to criticize “ebonics”, common black speech patterns. This is the same thing - bad grammar (NOT pronunciation/accent - that’s much different).
I have lived all over this country, and anyone who thinks one area has far worse communication than another, is just living within their own biases.
I was born in the south, have family in the deep south. I currently live in PA, I have lived in CA, I have spent a lot of time in the midwest, and NY... about the only major parts of the country I have not spent good amounts of time are the rocky Mountain states, southwestern states, and New England.
Everywhere, and I do mean EVERYWHERE, I have been, they all have their distinct enunciations, and language. It doesn’t take long to figure out what’s what, whether it be, how they use, or refuse to use the “be” and its conjugations... How much or little they drawl etc etc.
Yes, it can be amusing.. and being a southerner I still enjoy being able to use bless your heart as an insult, and getting thanked for it by folks who have no idea they are politely being called an idiot.
Yes, it can be disconcerting to first hear another accent or different way of speaking, but I’ve never not been able to rapidly comprehend someone regardless of those types of things, no matter where in this Country, or even other countries that I have been exposed to. Want to have fun, hear some of the colloquial ways English is spoken in parts of the UK.... You think US dialects are confusing you wouldn’t survive there... In a country a bit over half the size of California, the variation of the language is crazy.
*sigh* It’s not about the accent!
It’s GRAMMAR. Take a linguistics class - you’ll be shocked how many basic requirements there are for human speech.
Southerners EVERYONE knows about - they have a few grammar hitches but they are common to everyone, common “errors”. (That still would not be permitted in writing or on newscasts.)
In New England, no special grammar errors. Neither in New York. I’m not as “traveled” (residence) as you but I’ve been around a bit, know many people from many areas, and nope, nothing matches the PA thing.
Basically no-one knows about it, either - even me, living next to them and with western MDers who “should” have about the same patterns. It’s not shown on TV shows or anything. It’s not “advertised”. But EVERYONE knows about New England and NY and the “South” - and many know about Minn/Wisc. Most of these again, are about accent, and not rearranging words or omissions.
Sorry, but grammar varies to, if you think otherwise you are indeed living your biases. The implied or mis-conjugated “be” is nothing new, and as much as you may believe otherwise, its not just something that happens in PA, it may be where you were first or only exposed to it, but its definitely not distinct to PA.
No one would claim is perfect English, but it is NOT something I have not seen or heard far afield from PA.
Oh and it evidently reaches well into Ohio.
Not biased, just relating experiences. Look, I live in central MD and was raised here, I lived in New England working there, and my dad was basically a New Englander. His family in Maine of 5 brothers and a sister, visited several times. One bro moved only down to MA and his Minn wife has the upper Midwest/Canadian accent close to my other Canadian aunt who still lives in ME. Also trip to WI for their relations and my mom’s, and none of these people or the locals struck me as using bad grammar. The blood aunt lives in AZ for umpteen decades and out there with her 4 kids never noticed much special beyond aunts manner of speaking. Another bro moved to Portland OR and his kids and the people there, nothing much to notice. My brother moved to L.A. 40 years ago and again, nothing special out there beyond his wife’s Filipina accents with their kids and the Valley Girl thing. I’ve been around the south plenty with many vacations and it’s not very shocking compared to their depiction in movies.
I’d like to see your examples of bad grammar in other regions because I just can’t think of it, and I have a strong affinity for anything related to sound.
The implied (dropped) verb BE, or mis-conjugation of it, is something I have been exposed to my entire life.... the implied (dropping of it) is more prevalent in Appalachia in the US in my experience.. and the mis-conjugation of it is common pretty much EVERYWHERE, particularly in area of lower socioeconomics. This isn’t something that is distinct to the US, as it is known in the UK as well. Though better education there has lessened its use over the centuries.
Its not a lack of education, teachers in these areas correct their english and teach the forms and use of “be”, but in daily talk, it is just implied and understood.
If you want me to mock this region’s language, believe me I can list you out numerous things I find amusing here, and words I have never heard anywhere else I have ever traveled or lived... The lack of enunciation of vowels in certain words I find far more entertaining that the implied “be”..
Like pronouncing soft “a” as “or” in some words:
worsh = wash
or the substitution of the soft “e” sound for the soft “o” sound:
keller = color.
or the substitution of the “ah” sound for the “ow” sound:
dahntahn = downtown
Then there were words I had never heard used anywhere else...
redd up = tidied up, picked up, cleaned up
Or the dropping of “er” in some words:
slippy for “slippery” ie : Its slippy out.
However, probably one of my favorite is hearing grown adults order “dippy” eggs
Dippy = over easy IE: I’d like two dippy eggs, toast and bacon.
The following is a completely valid sentence:
Yinz need to redd up da house n’at before we can go dahntahn.
There is one other thing about Pittsburgh area at least that I noticed when I moved away for a while.... 1 its probably the only place you will hear Donny Iris on the radio semi regularly... and 2 outside of the Detroit/Michigan area, you will not hear Bob Seger on the radio more often anywhere else.
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