I‘ve been watching Clear and Present Danger on TBS. There’s a part where a voice analyst pinpoints the regions of the world one of the drug cartel advisers has lived in and been educated in by the way he speaks. I want someone to run one of those tests on me. I’ve been told my speech patterns are all over the place. There are Southern “ain’ts” and “ya’lls” sometimes followed immediately by a seeming Massachusetts-sounding accent on other words. I’d just like to hear the analysis, because I’m curious to hear how I picked that up myself, considering Tennessee is as close to the Mason-Dixon line as I’ve ever lived.
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sign me up for one of those tests too. i’ve lived in southern California my whole life but “y’all” flys out of my mouth daily and people ask me where i’m from all the time with the general consensus being either down south or back east somewhere. it’s odd. where the hell did i pick this crap up?
Did you ever hang out with a bunch of Massachussetians?
Like Nine I grew up in Southern California. While I lived there, I mostly thought that I didn’ t have an accent at all. When I moved to Northern California, though, I found out that I did.
On my first week at UC Santa Cruz, some girl had me pegged as a Southern Californian immediately, because I said “the” before every freeway name. I never knew that the rest of the country didn’t do that. I finally had to stop doing it when I moved to Atlanta, because my boyfriend would keep teasing me when I’d say “the 85″ or “the 285″.
I also apparently place accents at different places in words than most Atlantans…like the word “Monroe:” I say “MON-roe,” but I think most people here pronounce it “Munrow” without any emphasis on either syllable. Weird.
The Massachusetts-sounding part is most noticeable on uar/or sounds. Southerners might pronounce quarter as “kor-ter” and I might say “kwar-ter.” It’s weird, and I’ve never understood it, because I’ve never had friends from that area or anything. I speculate it’s from subconsciously imitating something on television, perhaps JFK’s speeches.
Funny thing about accents. Before moving to South Georgia, I lived in Southern California (San Diego mostly) and Hawaii. Upon arriving in the South, I was told that I was the one with the accent. And I just looked at them strangely. I don’t know if I had some Southern California accent that Joseph and Nine have mentioned, but I did pick up some pidgen while living Hawaii. (i.e., three is pronounced tree)
Also, I have been told that I mispronounce Atlanta because I accentuate the T. As in At-lanta. Not Allana.
For the record, “y’all” is used in India, particularly among middle-class Catholic families.
hmmm. i say that “kwar-ter” thing too. i have a cousin from Massachusetts tho who lived with my family for a spell in the 80’s so maybe that’s where i got it? donno.
yikes. did i just say “for a spell”?
i’m thinking that i also must have picked most of this junk up from TV - it’s the only logical explaination since i’ve never lived anywhere but here.