In no time they'll all sound like they're from south Alabama.
Posted on 12/31/2009 11:04:42 AM PST by don-o
For some examples, tune in to Hannity's show in the afternoon and hear young (I assume) females who speak in some sort of Valley Girl / Munchkin combination of vocabulary and inflection.
In the interest of equal treatment, many young males also exhibit poor communication skills; but poor in a different way. Many sound like remarkable apes who have learned rudimentary human speech.
What is the cause of this loss of standard speech?
This has been troubling me for quite some time. The last day of the year is a good time to get it out of my head and out there for discussion.
Thank you for letting me share!
That should be “speech”.
Way back in the ‘50s, teachers used to correct enunciation and pronounciation. They no longer do, either because it’s not PC, or because the teachers don’t know any better.
I also hear middle-class/affluent white kids and working young adults (even well into their 20’s) speak with a dull, disaffected tone.
The Southern dialect as a whole is disappearing, but the older folks still have it in spades.
A local radio station airs the Pledge of Allegiance every morning, done by a different grade school class. It’s hysterical to listen to the kids. You can really hear the accent... Ah ple..edge a..llee..gunce to the fla..aggg, of the U..nahnted Sta..ates of A..mer..i..ca
Too many d yankees moving in, and boy do they talk funny! :)
You can only feel sorry for these people who are being exploited for their weakness.
Realtor: "Y'all go dawn t'th'enda Churkey Road."
Mrs. Don-o: "Churkey? Excuse me? A cross between a chicken and a turkey?"
Realtor: (She gives me an exasperated look, then shouts in a manner not even appropriate for the hard of hearing): "CHURKEY!"
Mrs. Don-o (trying to look contrite): "Could you please spell that?"
Realtor: C! H! E! R! O! K! E! E!
No one has mentioned the “pitch” in the female voices.
I tend to turn my head like a dog when I hear the voice.
It really hurts my ears...
Also, when they sit on these panels to discuss an
important issue - they say one or two at the most
incomplete sentences and they sit back smuggly as if
they just said the most powerful, insightful, intelligent
thing. Barf...
I think it’s a mixture of canadian accent, and scandanavian accent.
Watching guys with BS degrees struggle for hours to write a simple paragraph of exposition for a technical application is a disturbing experience. This skill is becoming increasingly rare.
What I did?
Let me guess at the real reason: Americans don’t teach Plato anymore.
Exactly!! Thank God, I don’t have any trouble understanding speech like that! I’d never get a straight answer from my gardening customers otherwise. You want to talk about mangled words? Carolina sieva is a popular butterbean around here. We get requests for anything from seewee to seevee. The funniest one I can remember right off hand is a guy who came in and asked for collieberries. I kept questioning him and I finally figured out he wanted KOHLRABI! LOL
...on my birfday.
-PJ
laverne and shirly show is a good example of wisconsin.
I’ve always said “fixin’ as in ‘i’m fixin to start dinner’ when i lived in maine, that phrase really confused my friends!
The dialect is cool—it’s the colloquialisms that will get you! LOL
Hubby has people in upstate NY. Every time we go, everywhere, they all grin and say, “Say that again.”
In Kalleeefornia, we had a big debate on ebonics in classrooms. Oakland schools wanted to teach ebonics as a way to show the right and wrong way to speak.
Ebonics being thought of as a linguistic legacy of slavery and years of cultural isolation. They wanted to break the chain of what was the norm spoken in households.
The outrage was extreme. I never found out if they won or not. But when I hear axt instead of ask, I am sure these adults wish someone had taught them the difference. It is now a speech impediment for some.
Did you or did you not wear plaid when you said it?
It could be the lack of plaid that confused them, not the words.
I never realized the unique speech patterns potholes had until I saw that insurance commercial...
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