Terms Which Have Disappeared

[Inkstainedwretch]

There is a New Orleans accent that has the "er-oi" peculiarity and that most people only slightly familiar with either accent think sounds "Brooklynese." It may be common to many 19th century port cities, which were host to the same waves of immigrants.

 

[BlueTrain]

So Bugs Bunny has a Yankee accent?

Well, to an European, a Yankee is an American.
To an American, a Yankee is a northerner.
To a northerner, a Yankee is a New Englander.
To a new Englander, Yankee is someone from Maine.
In Maine, a Yankee is someone who eats pie for breakfast.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A Yankee is someone who's in 5th place in the American League East.

 

[Zombie_61]

...(Wait! We don't have an accent - you do.)

During a conversation with a linguistics coach years ago, she made a statement that was something to the effect of, "Anyone who doesn't pronounce words the same way you do has an accent." I think that pretty much covers it.

 

[HudsonHawk]

It offends me when a Southern accent is used for comedic effect, especially when it's used to indicate a character is not particularly bright or literate, and even more so when it's spoken by a non-Southerner. Larry the Cable Guy is the biggest perpetrator of this offense. To me, it's akin to someone performing in blackface.

 

[HudsonHawk]

A Yankee is someone who's in 5th place in the American League East.

Attagirl! Now yer chunkin' it in there!

 

[HudsonHawk]

On the other hand, I can name and usually identify at least a dozen regional variations of Southern accent. (Wait! We don't have an accent - you do.)

And most non-Southerners can't tell the difference. And they almost always get it wrong in the movies. Forrest Gump, a rural kid from southern Alabama speaking with a thick aristocratic northern Virginia accent, for example.

 

[BlueTrain]

Now that is an interesting comment. I saw Forest Gump (never saw American Graffiti) and I don't remember noticing anything about his accent. I live in Northern Virginia and I've never heard of a "Northern Virginia aristocratic accent." Perhaps I don't associate with the right people. But my wife is a direct descendent of both George Mason and the last owner of Mt. Vernon, though she would deny being aristocratic. There's only one three-star general and two Episcopal clergymen in the family, so that hardly qualifies as being aristocratic. That would be Loudoun County anyway. "Northern Virginia is that part of the state north of Fredericksburg on the I-95 corridor and Clark Brothers Gun Shop on the Rt. 29 corridor. It's less well defined in other directions and Jefferson County, West Virginia now has some claim as being part of Northern Virginia, both words being properly capitalized.

I find accents fascinating and I will admit that my wife does pronounce a few words in a funny way, though I dare not say so. But you should hear her mother, who is from Lynchburg. One thing about accents not commonly mentioned is that, although there are regional accents, there's more to it than that. The folks on one side of the town, the ones that live down there where the water gets up when it rains a lot, may not speak quite like those who live in another part of town. In other words, there is a class accent that is part of the regional accent. And as someone here has already pointed out, there is also a learned accent that one might acquire later, probably in college. And then, they all change over time, because no one is speaking a dead language.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Maine accent works the same way. George Mitchell has one, and so does the sternman eating breakfast next to you at the greasy-spoon counter, but they don't speak the same language at all.

 

[MisterCairo]

A Yankee is someone who's in 5th place in the American League East.

Go Jays!

(Third currently, but 4 wins in a row!)

 

[BlueTrain]

An accent is more than just a way of pronouncing words, of course. It can be a different vocabulary and cadence and sometimes word order. Southerners do not necessarily speak slowly, either, which only confuses the issue. There can be something of a generational difference, naturally, which is why accents change. I was often amused by how a young (relative to my age, at least) Korean co-worker used more contemporary slang than I did. Another thing that happens is that if you go far enough south in the right direction, you begin to hear New York accents, which to my way of thinking proves that the world is round, sort of.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Would you say, that mainly dialect = mentality?

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think it's more a question of dialect = social surroundings. Basically, you end up talking like the people who surrounded you when you learned to talk, and any changes after that have to be accomplished thru either conscious will or unconscious absorption. Someone raised with a working-class accent might choose, or feel pressured to choose, to shed that accent in order to accomplish social or commercial ambitions, and someone raised with a bourgeois accent might choose to adopt a working-class accent if they find themselves working or living among working class people.

Or, you might pick up the local accent after living among people who speak it for a long time. This happens most often with children, but some adults are also susceptible to it. I find, perhaps because of the years I spent doing different accents in radio, that if I'm around a group of people speaking with some particular accent, I have to consciously restrain myself from speaking that way myself. I worked for a former BBC reporter for a while, and whenever I was around her I'd find myself slipping into Received Pronunciation without realizing it. I once even substituted for her doing a broadcast when she had laryngitis, and nobody was ever the wiser.

Many people are bi-dialectal or multi-dialectal. If you're raised in a diverse area where many different dialects are spoken, it's easy to learn to speak many or all of them depending on how exposed you are to those influences. This isn't the same as "putting on" an accent the way an actor does -- bi- or multi-dialectals are raised that way from childhood, the same as it's possible to raise a child to be bilingual.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Now that is an interesting comment. I saw Forest Gump (never saw American Graffiti) and I don't remember noticing anything about his accent. I live in Northern Virginia and I've never heard of a "Northern Virginia aristocratic accent." Perhaps I don't associate with the right people. But my wife is a direct descendent of both George Mason and the last owner of Mt. Vernon, though she would deny being aristocratic. There's only one three-star general and two Episcopal clergymen in the family, so that hardly qualifies as being aristocratic. That would be Loudoun County anyway. "Northern Virginia is that part of the state north of Fredericksburg on the I-95 corridor and Clark Brothers Gun Shop on the Rt. 29 corridor. It's less well defined in other directions and Jefferson County, West Virginia now has some claim as being part of Northern Virginia, both words being properly capitalized.

Academically it's called "Virginia Piedmont", and is distinct from the "Virginia Tidewater" spoken in the eastern part of Virginia. It's a heavily non-rhotic accent, which means the "R" is not pronounced unless it's followed by a vowel, and vowels are elongated with an "aww" sound . So words like "butter" becomes "buttah" and "farther" is pronounced "fah-thuh". Forrest Gump would pronounce his first name "Fahr-rest". It's heavily English in origin and is sometimes referred to as Old Southern American. It's the kind of "classic" Southern accent that you would see non Southerners do in a movie.

On the other hand, a true South Alabaman would have a very heavily rhotic Scots-based accent, where you hear every "R" and sometimes ones that aren't there. He would have more of a General Souther dialect, with the hard R and words like "cain't" and "winder" instead of "window". A good example of the rhotic General Southern is Paula Deen.

Of course over the last 50 years, the last 25-30 especially, much of the Southern dialect has been mashed up with accents from all over, and you never know what you might find today, especially in "border" areas such as Virginia or where there's been a huge influx of Northerners such as Florida.

 

[BlueTrain]

I was raised--or grew up--in an area that technically speaks an Appalachian dialect and I do lapse into it when speaking to someone back home. I attended my 50th high school reunion year before last and slipped right into it. So far, I haven't picked up an aristocratic Northern Virginia accent, or I don't think I have. The best Virginia accent I've ever heard in film was that of Randolph Scott. In the fall, sometimes we have door-to-door salesmen selling farwood.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

My family is from the Pittsburgh region, three or four generations back to the first immigrants. I've lived in Fairfax County Virginia (the Beltway runs through it) for about 40 years. I lost my Pittsburgh accent years ago. Here in NoVa, there isn't anyone left from the days of "Northern Virginia aristocratic accent", at least not in my experience.

The last time I heard such a thing was several years back. I was out of work, and trying to actually speak to someone at the Virginia Employment Commission, but no one would answer the phone in any of the offices around here. I eventually phoned an office about 90 miles south and spoke with a woman somewhat older than me, judging by her voice, with a charming aristocratic Piedmont accent. It's the only time I've heard it.

"Area", on her tongue, was "ehh-rhea".

 

[Stearmen]

Listen here Buster Brown!

 

[HudsonHawk]

I was raised--or grew up--in an area that technically speaks an Appalachian dialect and I do lapse into it when speaking to someone back home. I attended my 50th high school reunion year before last and slipped right into it

I do this just talking to my mother on the phone. I'll say something to my wife and she'll say "you've been talking to your mother, haven't you?" Yes, how'd you know? "You sound like Jed Clampett."

 

[HudsonHawk]

Listen here Buster Brown!

My mother used to tell me "tend to your own little red wagon".

 

[Zombie_61]

Every great once-in-a-while an accent can be a complete mystery. Some time around 1980 there was a young female server at our local Bob's Big Boy restaurant who spoke with what sounded to me like an Irish accent. When we asked her about it, she told us that she had grown up in southern California, was the only person in her family who spoke that way, and had no idea where her "accent" came from.

Several years ago a good friend asked me why I sometimes spoke with a hint of a "southern drawl", and I had no idea what she was talking about. My wife even supported her observation, but never thought to ask me about it. After it had been brought to my attention I started "listening" to myself and eventually realized they were right, but that it only happened occasionally when I was very tired or sleep deprived. The thing is, no one in my family ever lived in the "American south", so I have absolutely no idea why it happens.