Earlier quoted context omitted.
Local pronunciations of place names are often different from what's expected, and whether intended to be such or not, are often used as shibboleths to distinguish locals from outsiders. The examples of Couch Street (/ˈkutʃ/) in Portland, Oregon and Tchoupitoulas Street (/ˌtʃɑp.ə.ˈtuː.ləs/) in New Orleans, Louisiana come to mind in American place names.
Fartown? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fartown%2C_Huddersfield
North American English Dialects
61–70 of 100 posts
Re: North American English Dialects
#62The title says "dialects" but most comments here are only about accents. Can people here give examples of non-standard grammar or vocabulary (that goes beyond some temporary slang or subculture words)?
Another example... 'they're all' is shorthand for 'they're all gone' in Pennsylvania.
Re: North American English Dialects
#63The title says "dialects" but most comments here are only about accents. Can people here give examples of non-standard grammar or vocabulary (that goes beyond some temporary slang or subculture words)?
1) AAVE's use of Copulas. In most English you form present progressive with a copula and the present participle: I am walking, I am driving, I am working. The copula contains no information on its own. In many languages, a low information word is dropped. In Spanish you say "(yo) soy Americano" meaning "(I) am American." There can be no doubt of the subject of the verb "soy" because it is inflected to match the subject, so the pronoun "yo" communicates nothing in a normal sentence and is dropped. In Russian you take the opposite tack: you say "ya Amerikanets" meaning "I (am) American)" so you drop the copula. You either need the pronoun or the verb to communicate who is American, and in this case the pronoun won. Well in AAVE you drop the copula in those present progressive sentences: "I walking," "I driving," "I working." But then there's an opportunity to put a higher information in all of these sentences: you can use "be" as a copula to express the habitual aspect. "I be walking," "I be driving," "I be working" (usually with emphasis on the "be") mean "I am in the habit of X, but don't assume that is what I am doing at this moment." Degrees can be expressed here: you can replace "be" with "stay" to get more habitual and less present. It's a trip! I'm scratching the surface here but that's a big one.
2) Related: "Needs" + past participle vs "needs" + present participle. I was working with a handyman from Colorado and he said "This sink needs sealed" or something like that. I (Northeast) would have said "this sink needs sealing." Colorado has always had over 50% of the population born outside of the state, so I don't know if that's a thing from there or from wherever his parents are from (not sure and didn't ask).
Re: North American English Dialects
#64The title says "dialects" but most comments here are only about accents. Can people here give examples of non-standard grammar or vocabulary (that goes beyond some temporary slang or subculture words)?
'mensch' and 'schmuck' are commonly used words in NYC that are not known to people in the South, unless they have studied German (and yes I had to fight capitalizing them.) Another example... 'they're all' is shorthand for 'they're all gone' in Pennsylvania.
Re: North American English Dialects
#65Really hard-core, old-school Charleston accent missing: https://youtu.be/rxNZrFyl2DA?si=VV7OWi-fY2m3twIA&t=1835
Re: North American English Dialects
#66Re: North American English Dialects
#67The title says "dialects" but most comments here are only about accents. Can people here give examples of non-standard grammar or vocabulary (that goes beyond some temporary slang or subculture words)?
"pop" vs "soda" is a commonly discussed one. (Google to see maps).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_English_regional_voca...
Re: North American English Dialects
#68Is anyone archiving these accents ? As much as I’m happy that kids now have access to YouTube, and thus can use the neutral influencer dialect, something about our culture is being erased. I grew up speaking both a neutral California accent and bits of AAVE. AAVE itself is drastically different depending on the part of the US you’re in. I can barely understand southern AAVE. NYC AAVE is much faster, but I think NYC p…
This is even more true if you find old recordings.
Re: North American English Dialects
#69Is anyone archiving these accents ? As much as I’m happy that kids now have access to YouTube, and thus can use the neutral influencer dialect, something about our culture is being erased. I grew up speaking both a neutral California accent and bits of AAVE. AAVE itself is drastically different depending on the part of the US you’re in. I can barely understand southern AAVE. NYC AAVE is much faster, but I think NYC p…
They have audio samples if that’s what you mean. The ones from where I grew up were spot on but rare even when I was growing up in the 90s. https://aschmann.net/AmEng/#AudioFilesOfLocalDialects
Re: North American English Dialects
#70Is anyone archiving these accents ? As much as I’m happy that kids now have access to YouTube, and thus can use the neutral influencer dialect, something about our culture is being erased. I grew up speaking both a neutral California accent and bits of AAVE. AAVE itself is drastically different depending on the part of the US you’re in. I can barely understand southern AAVE. NYC AAVE is much faster, but I think NYC p…
https://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=find&lan...