Why do so many people talk like that?

Little House on Unaka | December 31, 2009 | don-o

[radiohead]

Veni, Vidi, Vicki: “I came, I saw, and I’m like, Omigod!”

LOL! And you have to say “omigod” with an uplift and then quick downturn in the voice and two syllabus in ‘god’ (ga-ahd).

[Tijeras_Slim]

You had to know that was coming. :)

[OafOfOffice]

Its’ called HRT.

hormone replacement therapy?

[don-o]

ping

This is going to be a fun thread.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

A heavy machinery mechanic who worked at our coal mine often concluded his sentences with the verbal exclamation, "what I did."
"I changed out the oil from the scrapers, what I did."
I never could pin down where this habit came from or if it was from area of the country or another.

[LiberConservative]

Once at Taco Bell I ordered two tacos and a burrito supreme. The girl verified my order: “You say you want two taco and one burrito supremes?”

[blackdog]

I aint seen none.

I'm doing good.

I seen it he/she/it.

Are just a few used by the executives running the company where I work.

[don-o]

I hate to get my hopes up. So, thanks.

[dalereed]

“When I hear ‘ di-int’ I could bitch-slap the offender into the next millenium.”

If you got the meaning, go to hell!

[Little Bill]

I spent some time Northern England several years ago and in some areas of the South. There is English and there is what people speak. They understood me but I will be damned if I understood them, until the ear got tuned.

[Jagdgewehr]

Not to mention “Valspeak” thrown into the mix.

[mamelukesabre]

I can’t stand either. I like the way winsonsin and minnesota girls talk. And the dakotas too.

[OafOfOffice]

I sure hope our kids do not pick up Obama’s uh, uh, uh’s!

[BluesDuke]

You didn't get the memo? It was the subtitle of Edwin Newman's first language book: Will America Be The Death of English?

I fear the answer is in the affirmative.

[Tax-chick]

Yet another reason to avoid talk radio ...

I’m listening to Dr. Elizabeth Vandiver’s “Classical Mythology” lectures again. She has such nice diction.

[OafOfOffice]

Oh no you......”di-int”

[gardengirl]

See you that and raise you anything from Harker’s Island! Love the people of downeast NC, but it’s akin to trying to decipher Olde English mixed with a Scottish burr and a Southern twang thrown in. LOL

[FrdmLvr]

He must be able to count rapidly.

[OafOfOffice]

fargo speak?

[cornelis]

It isn’t a ‘loss of standard’, simply changes in said dialects . . . Clear communication . . . the guideposts of those who successfully advance in society.

I disagree on the first. Between clarity and dialect, the concern is clarity. And this about dialect: some dialects sorely lack it because its culture is not nourished by excellence. Ebonics is not a standard of clear communication because it is unable to adequately address the fundamental problems of society. Using it that way would turn the subject into satire.