OT: Accents ** Was: Hello to the New People

June 6, 2005

Hey Julie,

>>folks who are not native Texacans have to learn to speak native Texacan

>>afore they can vote. The way that's done is you gotta put a buncha

>>marbles in your mouth when you talk .. after you get the hang of

>>speaking native Texacan you can discard the marbles.

>

> This was too funny. After growing up util age 30 in NJ, then moving to

> AZ for some time, I thought I had lost my " east coast " accent. No way,

> the native Texans tell me....

Not at all surprising. ;-)

> When I talk to my son, I somehow seem to throw a y'all in as natural as

> can be (instead of you guys), and even a couple of fixin' to's (picked up

> in Oklahoma). He tells me I'm sounding like I have been here too long, LOL.

Best as I can recall folks from Oklahoma have a Suthran accent that is

very unique .. its a bit like that found in Suthran Alabama, Georgia and

Mississippi .. and I think its due to the migration of folks from that

area following the Civil War. I can generally tell who is the native

Okie when they speak. I like that accent. ;-)

I was raised in the South but since I left GA (in 1988) I've not lived

there. Folks overseas say I have a pronounced Suthran accent but when I

git back home (the KY-TN area) my buddies say I tawk like a Dang Yankee.

Might be that I pronounce some vowels a bit different now .. I think

them different .. like " a " hasn't been " aayy " for me in a long time ..

its " aahhh " .. and " b " isn't " bee " anymore .. its " bay " . But when I

git back home with them Suthran fellers I try (and think I succeed) in

falling back into the " over yonders " and " up airs " and " whuf fers " and

such. Soon as my plane lands back in Ankara .. the other Butch takes

over but still some of the habits of the last 60 days or so are gonna

be evident. ;-)

Rolling " r " s is something I've tried to learn over the years and I just

can't get it down .. can't even begin to get it right .. and there are

some words in some languages that just can't be pronounced correctly

unless the " r " is rolled a bit. I think it might be a genetic problem

with us Amerikans .. or maybe we're just afraid to make all those wild

and crazy facial expressions needed to pronounce some words. ;-)

> Julie

Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch http://www.AV-AT.com

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