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An Interesting Study in Dialect and Inflection

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  • An Interesting Study in Dialect and Inflection

    At the BangShift party at Mike Copeland's shop in Michigan, I met so many great BSers, so many great people...it was just great. And a reunion with some of y'all I had met already. So many folks that it was nearly a blur after the pace of that whole day's activities, tagging along with Matt all the way into Detroit, and THEN the party at the end of the day in Brighton...I'll always fall back on the term - social overload. Can't digest it all and file it all properly for accurate recall later.

    But I think it was Ed...I don't want to mis-credit or discredit anybody (whatta blast!)...but I think it was Ed who told me sometime during the day that he thought it was really neat that I talk out loud just like I type on BS, and I knew what that meant. Yes, you DO bring it with you, you can't leave it behind...

    Charter member of the Turd Nuggets

  • #2
    travelling around unbiased is fun.
    alot of dialect in america.
    just the northeast is 4 different sounds entirely.

    I myself am more a news anchor in comparison.(Had to learn to talk precisely on a military headset)
    Previously boxer3main
    the death rate and fairy tales cannot kill the nature left behind.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by boxer3main View Post
      travelling around unbiased is fun.
      alot of dialect in america.
      Truest and true. I love it, the way people talk wherever you are at the time. Fascinating, the differences.
      Charter member of the Turd Nuggets

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      • #4
        I think the funniest thing to me about the whole thing was something I did, out of regional ignorance.

        Not just inflection, or dialect, but even the food choices across the nation.

        In the South, for breakfast, you've got bacon and eggs (universal), but beyond that ...in the South you have grits. In other parts of the nation, you have other coices of corn-based breakfast side dishes.

        I didn't know about all of that when I got to Missouri on my bicycle. Never been there.

        At a roadside restaurant in Missouri the waitress asked me what I wanted. I said, "Three eggs, scrambled, and bacon."

        She scratched on her pad and didn't even look up when she asked, "Hominy?"

        I thought for a moment and then held up three fingers to make my point and said, "Three."
        Charter member of the Turd Nuggets

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        • #5
          this is entertaining to me,

          I was at the conference last week and there were C-130 users from all over the world. One guy got up during a Q&A and started to speak. I knew exactly where he was from, no doubt in my mind. Over the coffe pot during a break I asked when the last time he was in Pittsburgh and he smiled, how did you know he chuckled...Uh, do you hear me talkin' dude? I can pick a Wetern Pa-er out of a crowd within seconds of hearing them speak.
          If you can leave two black stripes from the exit of one corner to the braking zone of the next, you have enough horsepower. - Mark Donohue

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          • #6
            When we go out we like to listen to accents/ dialects and try to guess where they are from.
            Previously HoosierL98GTA

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            • #7
              I think the whole "southern" accent thing is moving north. I know folks from southern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois that sound just like folks from West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

              As stated above - the various NorthEastern accents are funny - and change dramatically across a relatively short distance.

              Then there's the folks from Northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota - who all sound like folks from Canada.
              There's always something new to learn.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by milner351 View Post
                I think the whole "southern" accent thing is moving north. I know folks from southern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois that sound just like folks from West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

                As stated above - the various NorthEastern accents are funny - and change dramatically across a relatively short distance.

                Then there's the folks from Northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota - who all sound like folks from Canada.
                Migration is at fault... Going where the jobs are...

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Deaf Bob View Post
                  Migration is at fault... Going where the jobs are...
                  That sure could be it Bob. Matt's in Wisconsin, after all. A Florida implant in the frozen wasteland.

                  But inflection aside, the dialect alone...let's not even address the word, "Barbecue."

                  The discussion of that word's usage has been killed to death. There's no solution.
                  Charter member of the Turd Nuggets

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by milner351 View Post
                    Then there's the folks from Northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota - who all sound like folks from Canada.
                    It's all in the ears, I reckon. I thought everybody in Thunder Bay, Ontario sounded like they were from Pittsburgh.

                    EDIT: People in Pittsburgh don't cuss that much. And I forgot about, "Eh?"

                    An example statement in Thunder Bay: "&^^%$ f^%$%$# it's hot as %$##@ today, @%@$@$!^!&!!! Eh?"

                    It was 61 degrees F at that very moment, the start of July. Forced to answer, three guys were staring at me wanting me to say something, all I could say was, "No, it's not hot. Not here. Not today."

                    I enjoyed the profuse profanity in English there much more than I enjoyed the constant French in another Canadian province....
                    Last edited by pdub; August 23, 2012, 03:04 PM.
                    Charter member of the Turd Nuggets

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                    • #11
                      I LOVE accents. Wilmington has a soft, genteel accent, sort of like Savannah but not as strong. IF you can find a Wilmington native. Go 100 miles inland and it's more "typical" Southern.

                      They say that in England a good linguist can place a native to within 25 miles of where they grew up - and sometimes closer.

                      Dan

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                      • #12
                        example of a conversation in Pittsburgh

                        1 -Hey
                        2 -Hey
                        1- What yinz got goin' on tahnight
                        2 -An'doin nuttin, just gonna go dahn air toda bah n' get some arns n'at
                        1- Oh man, I can't drink at arn, it gives me the $hits. I like yingling better
                        2- Ah'no dat yingling is good stuff but dem arns are on speshle
                        1- Hey, Anchu apposta be gettin' em stillers tickets?
                        2- I wuz suppoda but dat jagoff Billy sold em out from udah me.
                        1- Ahright, well I'm gonna get back'air n weedwack darestada grass
                        2- Ahight den, teker easy.
                        If you can leave two black stripes from the exit of one corner to the braking zone of the next, you have enough horsepower. - Mark Donohue

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by JOES66FURY View Post
                          example of a conversation in Pittsburgh

                          1 -Hey
                          2 -Hey
                          1- What yinz got goin' on tahnight
                          2 -An'doin nuttin, just gonna go dahn air toda bah n' get some arns n'at
                          1- Oh man, I can't drink at arn, it gives me the $hits. I like yingling better
                          2- Ah'no dat yingling is good stuff but dem arns are on speshle
                          1- Hey, Anchu apposta be gettin' em stillers tickets?
                          2- I wuz suppoda but dat jagoff Billy sold em out from udah me.
                          1- Ahright, well I'm gonna get back'air n weedwack darestada grass
                          2- Ahight den, teker easy.
                          Yep, that's it alright. Imagine my brother-in-law calling from Pittsburgh to get directions to a casino-hotel in West Virginia, from the addled West Virgina lady working the counter at the hotel. How'd that go?

                          Naahht too good. That's one of my favorite true stories.
                          Charter member of the Turd Nuggets

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by peewee View Post
                            Yep, that's it alright. Imagine my brother-in-law calling from Pittsburgh to get directions to a casino-hotel in West Virginia, from the addled West Virgina lady working the counter at the hotel. How'd that go?

                            Naahht too good. That's one of my favorite true stories.
                            haha, I can only imagine..
                            If you can leave two black stripes from the exit of one corner to the braking zone of the next, you have enough horsepower. - Mark Donohue

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by JOES66FURY View Post
                              haha, I can only imagine..
                              Here ya go Joe. I think for sure I've posted that here before, maybe during a discussion about GPS. Here it is, again or not again:

                              I picked up this story on a recent visit to Pittsburgh. Sue Unit is from Pittsburgh and on occasion we go there to visit her dad. Her brother Tom and his wife Peg live a block away, so everybody's always there hanging around.
                              For Tom and Peg's anniversary they were able to arrange a trip without the kids to a casino spot in West Virginia. Tom tells this story, and it's a hoot, and I can't write it nearly as well as he tells it, but it's worth a try:
                              Tom called ahead and got the casino/hotel on the phone. The lady on the phone sounded...let's say, challenged. Every time, she seemed to answer a different question from the one Tom was asking. The conversation by itself was a struggle, but Tom was able to book a room. Finally Tom asked, "Can you fax or email me some directions to the casino?"
                              The lady said, "Absolutely not, we don't do that."
                              Okay. Then Tom thought, hey, we have GPS in our vehicle. Ask her for the address. "Can you give me your address, then?"
                              The lady said, "Sure! It's (900 such-and-such Road)."
                              So on the day of the trip, Tom punched the address into the GPS and away they went. They got down into West Virginia and found the road. They came upon a few strip joints (all nude, all the time!), and Peg commented, "We must be getting close." They came to a hotel and casino complex and Peg said, "This must be it!"
                              The GPS unit indicated three more miles, straight ahead. Tom felt that the GPS is always reliable, so he kept going. Finally the GPS announced, "You have reached your destination."
                              They stopped the minivan in the middle of the road and looked around. They were in a row of clapboard houses on both sides of the road. Sure enough, one of the houses had a street number of 900.
                              Think back - Tom asked the challenged lady, "Can you give me your address?"
                              So she did.
                              Last edited by pdub; August 24, 2012, 09:53 AM.
                              Charter member of the Turd Nuggets

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