Monday, December 23, 2013

OK, I'll Play Too

A most interesting quiz, brought to our attention by that (other) Old AF Sarge.

Ahem.  We shall now pick a nit: "y'all" is correct for TWO people.  Three or more folks are addressed as "all y'all."  That said, I don't think I have a readily-identifiable dialect or accent but I most certainly retain what Mom... a classic Suth'in Belle, if there ever was one... taught me, mostly in the terms I use to describe things.  You'll note I fit in with my New Mexican neighbors quite well.
Committed to the Inter-tubes by on
Labels: , ,

19 comments:

  1. OldAFSarge23 December, 2013 11:15

    I've watched the EIP videos, I couldn't detect an accent from you either.

    Then again, dialect often times is about the words used as well, not just how they're pronounced.

    And I learned something today ("all y'all" - I had no ideer, Yankee that I am...)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Buck23 December, 2013 12:14

      And I learned something today ("all y'all" - I had no ideer, Yankee that I am...)

      I've been a party to some SERIOUS pissing contests on that subject. ;-)

      Delete
  2. virgil xenophon23 December, 2013 12:21

    I come from a part of Illinois(E. Central) that is part of a large swath from central Ind thru Ill and on up thru Iowa that is almost perfectly "neutral." I once had a radio producer once tell me that I had the perfect voice for radio for that very reason. It also makes us chemeleons.

    After having roommates at LSU from Memphis, Mobile, Dallas, Monroe La, etc, I entered the AF with a distinct southern patina to my accent. Now it happened that the majority of guys in my plt tng class were either from the West Coast or from the NE and when sent to DaNang by the luck of the draw almost ALL of the Sq happened to be from the Philly, NYC, NJ area. When I returned to the States and was passing thru Dallas w. layover time I called up the mother of one of my best friends and college roommate (who was then a Bongo driver--I had stayed at their house several times) His sister answered the phone and thought it was someone pulling their leg--said it couldn't POSSIBLY be me because they knew my voice--lol, I had picked up the NE "big city" voice. Took some doing to convince them it was actually me.

    And when stationed in the UK I began using the short, clipped pronounciation that so many of the English used. Now? I'm pretty close to the neutral voice I grew up with..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Buck23 December, 2013 16:14

      I found myself susceptible to the same sorts o' things you describe, especially while I was in the UK. A number of British-isms creep into my language even today, a fact that's been pointed out to me on numerous occasions.

      Delete
  3. virgil xenophon23 December, 2013 12:23

    ***ChAmeleons YIKES!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Buck23 December, 2013 16:15

      It's the rum, Virgil... it's the rum. ;-)

      Delete
  4. virgil xenophon23 December, 2013 12:27

    And Merry Christmas to ALL Y'ALL out there in the blogosphere!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Craig23 December, 2013 21:06

    My three cities were Detroit, Milwaukee, and Grand Rapids, and the red was pretty dark in western New York and eastern Washington state. But the darkest red on my map was the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Go figure. . .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Buck24 December, 2013 10:27

      Go figure. . .

      I wonder why!?! This seems to be a pretty accurate quiz, as far as these things go.

      Delete
    2. Craig24 December, 2013 12:47

      I mean, not just Michigan, but the northern Lower Peninsula. . . I'm impressed. . .

      Delete
  6. Craig23 December, 2013 21:12

    When I was in college, we discovered that another 'locator question' is (or, at least, was): what do you call it when you jump off a diving board, and you land on your stomach and it hurts? Here in LP Michigan (and almost nowhere else), we call it a 'belly-smacker'. Down south, it's a 'belly-buster', and most of the rest of the US (but the east coast most especially) calls it a 'belly-flop'.

    ReplyDelete
  7. HMS Defiant24 December, 2013 00:30

    Quel horreaux! My result is no result at all. My 3 cities were SF, Fremont and Stockton. Stockton????!! Who the hell ever heard of Stockton? And nobody lives in Fremont. Really. Nobody Lives In Fremont. OTOH, I grew up all over these United States and lived for a time in Emeryville and SF is stuffed to overflowing with people from all over who like the city and Silicon Valley so there's bound to be universal smoothing and language mingling. I suppose.
    Anyway, Bagdhad By The Bay has no accent anyway. Herb Caen said so and I believe him.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Buck24 December, 2013 10:30

      You and Brian (the BP, just below)! I wouldn't want to live in SFO or anywhere around it, although I DID enjoy the two-plus years I spent there.

      Delete
  8. Brighton Pensioner24 December, 2013 03:26

    This poor Englishman ended up with San Francisco, Sacramento and Minneapolis/St Paul!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Buck24 December, 2013 10:31

      How interesting, Brian. Mebbe we're not "two people separated by a common language" after all.

      Delete
  9. Kris, in New England24 December, 2013 09:52

    It got me exactly right...Boston and Worcester with a touch of Providence. The traditional Yankee accent is very strong with me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Buck24 December, 2013 10:32

      As noted above, this thing is very accurate, innit?

      Delete

Just be polite... that's all I ask.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)