Posted on 02/10/2016 1:48:23 PM PST by SkyPilot
'People speak to machines differently than how they speak to people,' says language technology expert Alan Black.
It was a simple enough question, at least in this part of the world.
"How can we mosey on down to the rodeo?" my friend Ben Crook drawled, sat in a rocking chair on his front porch, a can of Lone Star beer in his left hand on a humid night in Houston.
Only one thing jarred with this otherwise stereotypical Texas scene: Crook was asking Siri, the voice-activated digital personal assistant on his iPhone, rather than, say, a passing sheriff on horseback with a cowboy hat wider than the Buffalo Bayou.
Siri understood the individual words but didn't know how to respond. But Crook had other questions. He was hungry; heck, so hungry he coulda eaten the north end of a southbound billy goat.
"We're fixin' to eat brisket, where should we go?" he asked Siri. She offered a list of 15 restaurants - though not all appeared to serve Texas barbecue. Siri was also helpful when asked where to find crawfish, but baffled about kolaches, the pastries of central European origin that are hugely popular in Texas, calling them "Colotchies".
Meanwhile, though the free Dragon dictation app performed admirably when fed lines from the 2004 movie The Alamo, it did turn "Davy Crockett feller" into "David Rockefeller", and evoking a family of Yankee industrialists is no way to describe a hero of the battle for Texas independence.
The upshot of this brief and decidedly unscientific experiment is that Siri is at her best when addressed in standard English, with accents toned down and slang avoided where possible.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Drawl, what Drawl?
I understand you just fine......
No, but I have said “this ain’t my first rodeo”, a time or two.
“confused as a cow on Astroturf”
:-)
One of my favorite Texas saying:
“It so hot outside that I just saw 2 trees fightin’ over a dawg.”
I use that one quite frequently, from around April to October.
MY uncle didn’t marry an insect !
I guess if you have to explain a joke it isn’t that funny.
I am originally from New Jersey, but moved to Texas in 1988. After a few years in Texas, I had called one the managers I reported to.
Me: Good morning, Jackie, is Marcus in today?
Jackie was Marcus’ secretary, and she is real east Texas.
Jackie: Marcus is stuck in meetings all day. Is this Lee *****?
Lee ***** is originally from Beaumont, and thinks everyone north of Conroe is a Yankee. No mistaking his Texan.
Me; No, Jackie, this is Greg ******, originally from New Jersey. If you mistook me for Lee *****, can I turn in my green card and officially become a naturalized Texas citizen?
Jackie: Texas is now your home.
Radio was run out of New York for quite a while, even the very early days of TV the business was very New York focused.
Reminds me of the guy from Brooklyn working in Mississippi after being transferred who had the temerity to ask why people talked funny. He was advised very quickly that he was the only one that sounded funny.
My phone always says things I didn’t Nintendo.
;)
Interesting. Another tidbit is that the accent that was prevalent in the movies of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s was called "Mid-Atlantic." It was actual a real American accent, spoken most prominently by the upper class and those in show business.
The Mid-Atlantic accent was a combination of a New England accent and a British accent. FDR spoke with a Mid-Adlantic accent. So did Katherine Hepburn, as did countless movie and radio stars.
Here is what is sounds like:
That's a good one. "All hat, no cattle" was good until everyone started using it.
Yew got that right, pardnuh. I mosey on down yonder ever day, git me sum soady water too.
Yew got that right, pardnuh. I mosey on down yonder ever day, git me sum soady water too.
In the south we call all of them coke, no one from Texas would call it soda water.
Been a Texan since 71, that’s 1971 for you young uns.
That would have been “hunker down” not bunker.
Anyway, I think Texas has two accents, the more nasal one from East Texas especially in women and a western one. My father in law sounded like actor Ben Johnson. Overall though, American accents seem to be fading.
You think Californians have no accent?
That’s funny rite there!
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As a native Texan, with several generations of ancestors who were also, I too find that funny.
In the ‘80s, I worked for a major defense contractor in TX and the Army had us send a team to one of our subcontractors (also a major defense contractor) in CA to investigate their claims for money.
I was one of a team of eight who spent May into Oct. in CA, and we were all Texans. The CA people we had to deal with and that we encountered sounded like East Coasters to us. Everyone spoke in a very fast tempo and with clipped words (think of Rubio talking).
They must have thought us to be deficient because of our Texas drawls. ....Just in the one discipline I was investigating I managed to reduce their claims by 35% and other team members had similar results. The Army reimbursed my company for the expenses of our team and nailed the other company. ....Sometimes the drawl lulls the opponent.
I speak normal, no accent required... makes Laz jealous
Been a 6th generation Texan since ‘57 for you newbies.
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