Southern accents, Eastern accents, Northern accents and Ebonics

[modorney]

No, I drink my wattah from a tumblah.

There is a "test" (as in MMPI, MBTI, etc., ) that measures how many words you have spoken in life, up to that date - some linguist, or speech therapist here may be familiar with that test?. My college was into the psychology of engineering design, and that test was floating around. I grew up near Boston (in one of the Tonic Towns) and spoke few words. So, I lost my Boston accent quickly.

English has always been a fluid language, variations like Ebonics are frequent through history.

[LegallyBrunette]

Originally Posted by modorney

No, I drink my wattah from a tumblah.

There is a "test" (as in MMPI, MBTI, etc., ) that measures how many words you have spoken in life, up to that date - some linguist, or speech therapist here may be familiar with that test?. My college was into the psychology of engineering design, and that test was floating around. I grew up near Boston (in one of the Tonic Towns) and spoke few words. So, I lost my Boston accent quickly.

English has always been a fluid language, variations like Ebonics are frequent through history.

hijack--I grew up outside of Boston too, but I've never heard the phrase Tonic Town. What towns does that refer to/what's the reference all about?

Generally, I don't speak with an accent (although both my parents do), but I was 24 before I realized that people in the rest of the country didn't know what a bubbler (pronounced 'bubblah') was

ps, I'm with Ree, Dunkin Donuts munchkins are calorie free and delicious. /hijack

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by LegallyBrunette

Generally, I don't speak with an accent . . . .

I bet a Brit would disagree with you on that.

Everybody speaks with an accent.

[LegallyBrunette]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

I bet a Brit would disagree with you on that.

Everybody speaks with an accent.

True.

I meant that I don't generally speak with a Boston accent.

[catiebug]

My husband is from Charlestown (a part of Boston - it's where the Bunker Hill Monument is). Until their deaths, his parents still lived in the same house he grew up in. In 1997, my husband and I were living in Chile. I was pregnant (about 5 months at the time) with our first child. I came up to the States for a month tho see my in-laws (Boston), my grandmother (San Diego) and my mom (Houston).

My FIL took me baby clothes shopping in Boston one day. This was a discount place where nothing was more than $10, but they had some very nice things. I picked out quite a bit, mostly things at the $10 price level. We went to check out and the clerk said, "You didn't get any bahhhhgans." I could not for the life of me understand what she was trying to say. My FIL, who had an accent as thick as anything, had to "translate" for me - he spelled the word - b-a-r-g-a-i-n-s. I said, "Ohhhhhhhh, barrrrrrgains!"

[tld221]

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

So they're not the same? I don't think anything is wrong with it, nor do I think anything is wrong with the different words being used in different parts of the United States. I just wonder how it changed to what it is now. I have my opinions of where I think it will go, but I'm interested in hearing others.

Originally Posted by DSTCHAOS

No harm no foul.

But once again, Ebonics isn't "slang" and you should find another way to joke about a GC translator than to call the crappy translated sentences Ebonics.

see, now I'M glad i read ahead.

[barbino]

I call all over the country in my postion and deal with different accents and dialects daily. If I call California, no accent unless they moved there from another area. Most of the West Coast, same thing. The Midwest has different accents, as does the south. The East Coast, too has several different accents. Boston & Staten Island, New York are the two that come to mind. If I call Staten Island or Brooklyn I sometimes have to get an Italian interpreter. Ditto the interpreter (Spanish) for certain areas of California, Texas, or Florida.

I spent 4 years in Kentucky during college. I like to joke that it took me 4 years to learn the proper pronunciation of the word Louisville (Lou-ah-vull). However, now it takes me no time to get a southern accent back, although I have lived in Chicago again almost thirty years. I have even caught myself doing it during a call to a Southern state. The best was the call where a guy called me & I could tell that he was from Louisville just by his accent!

There are many accents in the US- all part of the individual cultures that we grew up in. An example of this are my Indian friends who actually speak better English than I do because they were taught British English, not the American version.