I don't think I could pass an English speaking test in the southern states

[NNN0LHI]

I am not being sarcastic here. My wifes relatives live on the Missouri / Arkansas border and when we go down to visit them none of us can understand each other for two weeks. I feel like I am in another country. I am not joking. Same thing happens in reverse when they come up here to Illinois.

I realize it is the same language and all but doesn't do me a bit of good when they start talking very slowly with an accent and begin using words I never heard of before.

They have the same trouble with us talking a mile a minute and using words they never use.

Then after spending a couple of weeks down there I start talking like they do. And when I come back home no one up here can understand me because I got used to talking so slowly down there and using a southern accent.

What a mess.

Don

[AverageJoe]

1. Hmmm. I'm a southerner

and have travelled a bit, also spent much time with "yankees" who've landed south of the Mason-Dixon, and haven't had the problem you describe. Sorry to hear of your trouble.

[madeline_con]

45. Better slow down...

:rofl:

[CottonBear]

2. Missouri is considered Southern?

I'm just asking. I'm a NC native living in GA. I always thought Missouri was Midwestern.

Come on down to GA. :)

We'll teach you how to speak Southern but you'll have to choose from Inland South (mountains), Big City (Atlanta), middle GA or South GA or Coastal. My town of Athens has a distinct accent. Kim Basinger is an Athens native. She speaks with a strong Athens accent when not in character.

edit: I've traveled fairly widely and have never had any trouble being understood. In fact, many other Georgians accuse me of being a Yankee because I have an Inland South accent and not a deep south accent.

My hubby is a yat speaking NOLA native. NOW that's a whole nuther language, baby! :)

[NNN0LHI]

3. They live in and around Steele, Mo. and Blythesville, Ar.

I spent a lot of time frog gigging in the bayous. It sure seems southern to me when I am down there.

Don

[KoKo]

10. You should see folks trying to understand Coastal South Carolinians....

Particularly some of the older folks. Another language...:-) Low Country Accent influenced by the Gullah dialect which is a mixture of African and old English.

It's amazing how transplants can pick up Southern dialects so easily. Yet it doesn't seem to work in the reverse.

[Sugar Smack]

12. Have you seen the book "Hoi Toide on the Outer Banks"?

That's a very "hybrid dialect" of Southern American and British, like the Hybrid Cajun accent but without the French and with the British.

[CottonBear]

15. Oh! I'v never heard of that dialect. Cool!

My hubby is a native NOLA yat speaker. I love listening to my LA in-laws speak!

The "nutra ground" is the landscaped median in the street. A "sammage" is a sandwich.
A favorite saying is "Nevah again." Verb tenses are all mixed up down there too.

[Sugar Smack]

17. I've heard it a couple of times. It really is a unique dialect.

Now, I've heard some people say, "Yonder, where?" when asking directions. "How far away is 'yonder?'"

[KamaAina]

34. Simple Yat/English proficiency exam

1. Before 8/29/05, "debris" referred to:

a) all the empty go-cups on St. Charles on Ash Wednesday morning
b) the cooling movement of air across your patio on a summer evening
c) bits and ends of roast beef, made up into a po'boy "sammage" with gravy

2. If you start at Bourbon and St. Louis, head two blocks "downtown", then two blocks "river" (or "riverward"), you arrive at:

a) Canal Street
b) the Garden District
c) Jackson Square, home of many a Dumbass Supreme(TM) photo op

3. "Algiers" means:

a) the capital of a North African country
b) a Middle Eastern satellite TV channel that hates America way too much
c) the portion of N'Awlins on the West Bank of the river (which, naturally, places it south of the rest of town!)

Even the Dumbass Supreme(TM) might catch on eventually: the correct answer is always 'c'. I'm sure y'all can come up with many more...

[KoKo]

21. It sounds a little like folks in Coastal Maine...

Also reminds me of some of the accents in some of the old BBC Series "All Creatures Great and Small." Some of the accents of the characters sounded like Maine and Outer Banks.

Also read in National Geographic that theres an island in the middle of the Cheasapeake Bay that has a dialect that goes back to Middle England.. I wonder if it would be the same as Outer Banks and Maine.

[tenshi816]

27. I'll have to get that book.

Is it a recent publication? Do you know who wrote it?

The British are good at doing Southern accents. Look at Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, for instance. Or Leslie Howard as Ashley Wilkes in the same film. In all my years living in the UK, I've found that the Southern American accent is the one people can most closely imitate if they're trying to do an American accent.

Because the South was originally settled by the British, followed by the Irish (with the exception of Florida of course), it makes sense that there are still places with unique hybrid dialects. I find it fascinating.

[CottonBear]

14. I've been in stores where the SC (Beaufort) Gullahs were speaking Gullah.

Very intersting. I had no idea what they were saying but the language sounded cool. :)
I love the SC coast and I love being a naitve Southern speaker!

I can understand everyone else. I have noticed that others have trouble understanding us. Don't know why.

[tenshi816]

28. CB, is Gullah the same dialect as Geechee?

I think I feel a spell of Googling coming on when I get the time.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

43. CottonBear, you have made the mistake of leaving out my favorite...

Old Money Southern.

Almost an affectation, but music to one's ears.

You will find it in Savannah as well as certain gatherings in Atlanta, Birmingham and other metropolitan areas... And quite often in the courtroom.


(25 years in Atlanta, still in the South)

[Sugar Smack]

4. Well bless ya heart, son.

Us in Chapel Hill ain't got nonea those worries y'all talkin bout up in heah.

[NNN0LHI]

6. Thats it. Right there it is. I am lost when that happens n/t

[Sugar Smack]

8. I swannee, I reckon folks sound like cows dyin' in a hailstorm. ; )

My boyfriend had to give me a lesson on how to speak Minnesotan as well. I picked it up when I visited him and brought it back here with me.:)

[tenshi816]

31. Your post reminds me

of when my husband and I first started dating. He's British but was working in Atlanta for a couple of years. He used to say "I reckon" all the time and I just thought it was something he picked up from living in Georgia, but it's actually a phrase still in common usage in England. I used to hear it used a lot when we lived in London.

My grandmother used to say "I swannee" all the time. Haven't heard that one in a while!

[CottonBear]

16. Oh! You live in my hometown! I'm a born and bred Tarheel!

If God isn't a Tarheel, why is the sky Carolina blue? ;)

You live in the same town as the Edwards! Cool! Lucky you! :hi:

[Sugar Smack]

18. OMG!!! Hi, Tarheel!!

:toast: :bounce: :hi:

Wow, not only do I live in the same town as Edwards *wow* but I know what "He's Not" means.:D

[Road Scholar]

42. Well, I do declare, southeastern NC here. Please do pass th grits

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[lildreamer316]

50. Now; just wait a cotton-pickin' miniute!

My Dad used to say that all the time; he was from Catawba County. Mother from near Pinehurst.

[NNN0LHI]

51. My wifes family started in on the grits with me too

I had no idea what grits were.

Never heard of beans and cornbread either. But I was hungry and ate it anyway and I am sure glad I did. I eat beans and cornbread regularly since then. There isn't nothing better.

Don

[Road Scholar]

55. I was raised on grits and corn bread. I know we look a little silly

but I ain't never heard of no Southerner retiring and moving up north. LOL:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[supernova]

5. You mean you don't speak English properly?

:P

[RB TexLa]

7. I didn't take it but the school I went to had a class for getting rid of a

southern accent. I got rid of mine on my own.

[jdlh8894]

9. The longest word in a Southern dictionary?

SHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

[Road Scholar]

46. ROFLMAO Good one! nt

[bleedingheart]

11. I have met folks from where I live that are hard to understand...

severe cases of Pittburghese can be pretty bad....

[supernova]

13. House youns doin'?

:crazy:

[bleedingheart]

20. jeet?

[SaveAmerica]

29. jeetchet?

[bleedingheart]

32. ju?

[SaveAmerica]

33. I just realized the biggest difference between PA and the south...

southerners can make a one syllable word have 4 or 5 syllables and in PA 4 or 5 words are smashed into one (I have both in my background before anyone starts jumping on me for bashing one or the other).

[bleedingheart]

48. that's cuz we are spaztic here in PA...

running at full speed...we must make everything faster...hahahaha

I grew up (and was lucky) to be around a lot of the people who came from europe in my childhood...and English was their second language and yet they would still try to talk as fast as they did in their native tongue...kinda funny.

My Croatian grandmother would start in English...and end sentences in Croatian because she could talk faster....

[WorseBeforeBetter]

49. LOL...I actually understood the exchange between...

you and SaveAmerica. I'm a Tar Heel now, but Johnstown is in my blood.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

19. i travel all the time from coast to coast

and north to south and around the planet...never EVER had a problem with an accent...mine or theirs. The New Englanders are the only ones I have ever come close to asking to repeat themselves.

sP

[Pastiche423]

22. I was born and raised in the south

Then headed for the west coast for the next twenty years.

When I returned to the south, two decades later, I felt like I had moved to a different country. My father, a genteel southern gentleman, told me I spoke foreign and way too fast.

But what was really interesting, was the way my last name was pronounced there - Folker. On the phone w/Bellsouth, while trying to set up a new phone account, the cs rep thought I was playing a joke and/or just being nasty when I pronounced my name the way it is supposed to be pronounced. Finally I had to spell it very s l o w l y.

Having moved back to the left coast in 2000, I decided to stay here permanently.

[tenshi816]

30. I was born and raised in Georgia

but have lived in England for most of my adult life. My accent is all over the place and it confuses people, but I don't hear it myself. To me, it's just the way I talk.

[RebelOne]

36. I was born in Philadelphia and lived in Miami, FL

from the time I was 4 years old. In all the years that I lived in Miami, I never lost my Philadelpha accent. I have lived in Georgia since 1989 and people still ask what part of the North I am from. In fact, some have asked if I am from the British Isles, since my accent is mixed with the Southern and Northern accents. But, of course, when I was in the British Isles, they would ask me what part of the states I was from.

[tenshi816]

38. I bet you never think of it in terms of having an accent

that's especially different though, do you? To you, you just sound like yourself and you don't think of it in terms of accents. Strange, isn't it?

Like I said in my post, other people remark on the way I speak and pick up on things I don't notice about the way I talk. Many people in the States think I'm British but no British person ever thinks that, although the way I say certain words confuses them until I speak a bit more. When I'm in Canada, most people pick up that I'm American but sometimes I'm mistaken for a Brit.

I love listening to people's accents.

[sadiesworld]

23. My husband has a problem with accents...

he's slightly hard of hearing (though he doesn't like to discuss it, thank-you very much). You may want to have your hearing checked.

[NNN0LHI]

24. You think maybe my wife, my kids, and all my wifes relatives are...

...hard of hearing too perhaps? Because it isn't just me who is having the difficulty as I pointed out in my OP.

Don

[janx]

25. It's not a mess! It's language.

:toast:

My sister-in-law remarked to me recently that she could not understand my cousin in Maine. (My sister-in-law was born and raised in Iowa but now lives in Oregon.)

It's all about exposure, and it's really very beautiful. I know exactly the sound you heard around the Missouri/Arkansas border. I heard it on the rivers there in my childhood when we went on float trips there. That was one beautiful landscape. The fishing was unbelievable, there were crawdads in the clean rivers, and every night on every gravel bar there were shooting stars in the sky.

People speak the way they speak for reasons, and the processes and the sounds are gorgeous. Every one of those regional dialects has a history. And isn't it interesting how quickly we can pick up on a dialect?

Embrace it! :toast:

[Sugar Smack]

26. I love seeing how huge a spectrum of dialects can be

in one language. I'm not going to speak for NNN0LHI but I'm fairly certain that some of that was said in jest. You are right on the money with your post, too. And you're making me want VERY BADLY to visit those rivers.

My father and I hushed our conversation once at a cafe, just to listen to the quiet voices of two French women speaking nearby. It was beautiful.
:toast:

[Canadian Socialist]

35. You think you have problems?

Try being a 22 year old Canadian from Winnipeg. I was on a cruise w/a friend back in 1978 (or there abouts). We were on a bus tour of Puerto Rico and hooked up with these college boys from some university in the south. After talking to them for a while, one of them turned to me, and said, "I sure am glad I don't have an accent like you". 'Course I didn't understand what he was saying, cause of HIS accent. It made me laugh. I guess I spoke too quickly, and with an accent. heee. He thought I was "English", which I guess meant he thought I had a British accent. HA! I have, what I call, a "mid-Atlantic" accent. Not quite "British" and not quite "American". Just Canajan, eh. heee.

[tnlefty]

37. Bizarre that I'm sure that I sound "southern on steriods", but I can't

stand to hear Jeff Sessions, Trent Lott, Lindsay Graham, or Phil Gingrey anytime that I catch them on c-span, and I often wonder if I find them difficult to tolerate how in the hell can those from other regions of the country listen to them!

I don't usually have problems understanding folks from other areas of the country - just listen more closely. I did find a former male neighbor from Boston hard to understand, but I could understand his wife who was also a native of Boston fine. He had a very heavy accent and he seemed to slur words together.

[Swamp Rat]

39. Ssssloooooooo

wwww . . . . . dooooowwwwwnnnn! .... .... .... .... yerrrr wwrrriiitttinnnnnn' tooooooo faaaaassssst....!

:D

[NNN0LHI]

40. That is exactly what I do. But it doesn't help when I am listening

I just sit there and nod my head when I don't understand something.

That is how I ended up in the bayou at midnight gigging frogs with water moccasins all over the place.

Don

[Marr]

41. I want an ammendment making unaccented American english the official

language of the United States.

[bumblebee1]

44. My uncle kidded me alot when I was stationed in Maryland.

I know what you mean by picking up on the dialect. I started using the phrase Y'all shortly after being stationed in Maryland. I was talking to my uncle one afternoon and was using "Y'all." He told me that I'd been living in the south too long. I needed to come back north again. Then, I was stationed further south than Maryland: this time it was South Carolina. Whatever would my uncle say about that? After being in S.C., my nephew told me that I sounded like I was from Texas.

[benburch]

47. We interrupt this thread for an important announcement!

[NuttyFluffers]

52. aww, my region of america doesn't have a strong accent...

if it has one at all. northern californians don't have much in the way of an accent. nowhere near what we can hear in southern californians, and even that is rather slight (no, they don't all talk like the stereotypical SoCal surfer/valley accent -- that's mostly just campy entertainment). perhaps northern californians' lack of an accent is due to so many immigrants, and the lack of a long established british colony, that there hasn't been enough time to develop one. either that or we all try our best to inunciate because there's so many beautiful accents from all over the world here, don't wanna make communicating that much harder, right?

though i have noticed that just about everyone i know from here, when we travel we have little issue with accents. must have something to do with adjusting the ear regularly to "get the jist" of someone's communication. even some really garbled ones hardly trouble us. we're also pretty good at pronouncing foreign words correctly (or closer to correctly) here. can read off an attendance sheet and hit every continent and most of the major world languages before even halfway done. the experience is kind of fun. i like it when you get someone who's really good at reading names, easily switching from english to spanish, chinese, russian, hindi, yoruban, polish, korean, arabic, french, portuguese, persian, vietnamese, etc. and hitting just about all the pronunciations correctly. it's like magic.

[BooScout]

53. An interesting tidbit.....

Not too long ago I read about a study done by linguists......it seems that English as spoken by those of the Southern persuasion in the US is closer to actual English spoken by Brits. No Joke. Apparently the Brits have so corrupted the language that it's not even close to 'pure' English anymore. It's not the first time that I have heard that Southernspeak is closest to true English.

[moondust]

54. Welcome to Reality.

The truth is that lots of people in the U.S. who claim to speak English and are required to speak English in their jobs--including vast numbers of doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals imported from abroad--do not speak English very well at all. This will never be another black-and-white issue no matter how much simple-minded Republicans try to make it one and treat it as such.

The reservation I have is with some "separatist" Latino groups that apparently would rather wholly maintain their ethnic identity and not make an effort to Americanize by learning the language, customs, laws, etc. Quebec of the Southwest anyone?