The American accent

Gotcha, and don't call me Shirley.

 

A hospital? What is it?
It's a building where they take sick people, but that's not important right now.

My accent would be Pacific Northwest American, which to my ear means no accent at all. We visited relatives in the DFW Texas area 20 some years back for a awhile and after nearly a weeK I caught my speech pattern showing things like "y'all" and other regional idiosyncrasies that definitely are not "native" to Oregon.
It amused me a few years back when someone asked where I was from. No doubt I was using some trace of variation of a wanna-be British or Scottish accent. That one got into my speech pattern years and is still there. Watching shows like Dr. Who, Black Adder, Are You Being Served, Benny Hill, etc. etc. (huge fan of BBC programming, they use sarcasm much better than over here) no doubt has something to do with that.

 

It's all about regional accents.

I'm going to risk the destruction of the universe by actually agreeing with Strange Famous for the first time ever. My wife is British and her accent is "omg fuck me NAO!" sexy. I have some friends that are from the dirty scouse region and I can't understand 80% of what they're saying but my wife's family has a thick accent but it's clear. (They're from around the London area which in and of itself offers many variations)

NC people talk funny. It's hard to understand half of what they say. Same with Mass and upwards people, I can get it, but if the accent is super thick it may take a minute to process it. I think the problems really only come into play when slang is used. Southern slang is hilarious to say the least.

I take massive enjoyment by watching people ask where others are from and assuming based solely on accents. For instance, a Puerto Rican girl we know gets so angry every time someone asks what part of Mexico she's from that I have to make sure no sharp objects are close by. Same goes for Brits etc.

The only ones that don't count are Canucks. They can't even figure out what the hell they want to use for a language.

 

real life Scottish accents are more Rab C Nesbitt than Sean Connery most times!

 

Mmmm Australian accents are the best!!!

 

I don't know that I find Aussie accents more compelling than Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and English accents, all of which drive me crazy. But it's a nice accent, and it is also true that somehow Aussies have a ridiculously high incidence of hotties. I would venture to say that 90% or better of the Aussies that I have ever met or even seen are at least good looking, and well over half of those are sizzling hot. And, from what I have heard, Aussies tend to be awesome in the sack. Unfortunately, I have never shagged an Aussie (my loss, I am quite certain), but I have a couple of friends who have done so, and they both said that those Aussie girls fucked them down to sweaty nubs.

 

I love those European kangaroos

'Strine' - that's what we Aussies talk.
--- merged: Nov 21, 2012 at 8:51 PM ---

I dunno. Kinda strange time to notice, but the doctor who delivered my second sun was scottish and she had a super sexy accent
--- merged: Nov 21, 2012 at 8:55 PM ---

We try to stop the ugly ones at outgoing immigration

 

Thanks, mate! You guys and the Kiwis are doing a bang-up job on that. Think you could give a lesson or two to the Canucks and most of the Europeans? And, for that matter, around 2/3 of our States?

 

It's kind of funny, because this is my thread, yet I'm not sure if my following post belongs here or not.

Anyway, this morning, I got a chance to yell at the radio.

I was flipping channels through Sirius/XM and stopped on a sports program for a few minutes while two reporters discussed NASCAR. Although I'm not a NASCAR fan by any means, I was briefly intrigued when one of them said something about Talladega (which is located in my home state of Alabama), and he incorrectly pronounced the name of the track as "TAL-uh-DAY-ga." The other reporter (the one with the Southern accent) quickly corrected him that it was actually pronounced "TAL-uh-DIG-ah." The first reporter, incredulously corrected him back and said no, it was actually TAL-uh-DAY-ga. He said the town's name may be pronounced TAL-uh-DIG-ah, but the racetrack is pronounced TAL-uh-DAY-ga.

A lot of my lifetime of angst can be summed up in that arrogant little mindless exchange. Talladega is, and always has been, located in Alabama. It was named by Alabamians after a Creek Indian word that means "border town," and was pronounced by the Creeks as "TAL-uh-DIG-ah." The town, and everything in it is named "Talladega" and is correctly pronounced "TAL-uh-DIG-ah." Talladega Pizza. Talladega Home Center. First National Bank of Talladega. But I'm supposed to believe that it takes an enlightened visitor to come to my state and correct me on the pronunciation of my state's racetrack?

No, no, and hell no. It's not Spanish, you dumbfuck. It's Creek. And it's pronounced TAL-uh-DIG-ah. TAL-uh-DIG-ah. Now, forever, and always.

Any questions?

 

warrrreagl for some reason I immediately thought of this when I read your post: No no no, it's spelled, "Raymond Luxury Yacht," but it's pronounced, "Throat Warbler Mangrove".

 

wareagl (sorry, refuse to count the r's)

Phonetically "dega" is pronounced with a long A sound, unless you live in the South where the drawl turns a long A into a long I sound. So, depending on one's accent, both TAL-uh-DAY-ga and TAL-uh-DIG-ah are correct. Unless you want all of us Yankees to start sounding like y'all?

 

Craven is the genius I want to be when I grow up, and, as usual, has cut straight to the heart of the matter. My hat is off to you, sir.

Let's pretend for a moment that over 200 years ago, a bunch of folks living near a small settlement situated between a large river and a large forest found an ancient map designating the name of their settlement as "Talladega,"and the map actually came with a pronunciation guide. The map said it should be called "TAL-uh-DIG-ah," so the bunch of folks decided to stick with it. The only authority they had was the map, and if the map said it should be pronounced as TAL-uh-DIG-ah, then that's what they decided they should do. Well, you don't really have to pretend, because that's what pretty much happened - the Creek Indians provided the settlers with a name for their town and told them how to pronounce it, so they went with that. It has been called TAL-uh-DIG-ah by everyone for more than 150 years before NASCAR ever even considered dropping by.

But what if the toothless, redneck, hick bastards who lived there totally fucked up the town's pronunciation because they weren't paying attention at all to the magic map. Instead, one of the less-drunk members of their settlement heard the map say, "Throat Warbler Mangrove," and they've been calling it THAT ever since. So, if that's the case, what's the correct pronunciation of "Talladega?" If you answered, "Throat Warbler Mangrove," then congratulations - you win the round, and you may advance to the finals. No matter WHAT the people of Alabama call one of their towns, then THAT is automatically the correct pronunciation. Because it's OUR town. Period.

Outside of Des Moines, Iowa, there are two small towns called Nevada and Madrid. When I taught at Iowa State University, I placed student teachers in the schools of Nevada and Madrid all the time. However, I learned the very first day that "Nevada" in Iowa is NOT pronounced the same as the 36th state of the United States. Instead, it is pronounced by the natives as "Nuh-VAY-da," so that it sort of sounds similar to "Darth Vader." Also, Madrid, Iowa is not pronounced the same way as the capitol city of Spain. Instead, it is pronounced by the natives as "MADD-rid," so that the first syllable rhymes with "bad."

If you go to either of these towns and mispronounce the name, at least a dozen people will whirl on you and correct your pronunciation on the spot. You do not have the option of telling these people that they are phonetically wrong with the pronunciation of their town's name, and they should all drop the nonsense and start speaking correctly. It's their town, and the correct pronunciation is whatever they say it is.

That's all I'm saying. I'm just amazed that non-Southerners refuse to use the correct pronunciation of Talladega, and will go so far as to try and correct us back. It's all very similar to how the Rosetta Stone should actually be called the "Rashid Stone," because the French flatly refused to learn the town's true Egyptian name of Rashid, and insisted on pronouncing it as "Rosetta." The French were obviously right because they were - well - the French. And the Egyptians were wrong because they were just not worth dealing with.

 

Everyone knows that the French are the foundation of civilization and that the Egyptians are just a bunch of dirty, backwater folks in need of what the French were selling.

 

I'm still not clear on how to pronounce Talladega.

I get that it isn't TALLA-DAY-GA, but is it TALLA-DIE-GA or is it TALLA-DIGG-A? Just in case I ever go there, or something.

Over here we like to mix up our spelling and our pronunciations just to cause problems for the unwary American tourist. We are simple folk and easily entertained. Worcester and Worcestershire and Edinburgh are fun, as is Leicester and Gloucester. Even Birmingham has its entertainment value. Oh, and I went to school in Loughborough (LUFFBRUH). How we laughed!

Mind you, the Welsh are better at it than us - who else would name somewhere Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochuchaf? The "uchaf" at the end means "upper", so there is also Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch as well.

The opportunity to watch someone try and pronounce it is almost enticing enough to make them put down the sheep they are fucking.

Dialects? Hmm.

 

Wareagl, Are you pronouncing the DIG with a short I as in BIG or a long I as in DIE?

Knowing that the Creek Indians didn't use the same alphabet as the settlers (Not even sure they had one of their own) they couldn't have told Alabamian settlers how to spell it and a map they might have left behind,written using our standard western alphabet is highly unlikely. Any eventual spelling by settlers would have to have been their written interpretation of the way the Creeks were saying it. So, if the Creeks pronounced it Tal- ah- dig -uh, with a short I sound, how did it end up being spelled Talledega which phonetically is pronounced with a long A sound?

So do you think the settlers heard a DIG sound and incorrectly spelled it with a DAY sound or did they transcribe it correctly and subsequent generations began pronouncing it differently?.

Sorry, I'm a bit of a pedant about stuff like this, only because I find the origins of words and language fascinating.

Final question, do you Talledegians make any allowances for those outsiders who ignorantly pronounce it phonetically or do you shoot first and ask questions later?

There's a small town in SouthWestern Virginia call Buena Vista. Rather than pronouncing it the Spanish way which would be BWAYNA Vista they pronounce it BUNA (as in TUNA) Vista - They too get their panties in a bunch when outsiders get it wrong, despite the fact that every other Buena Vista in the US is pronounced BWAYNA as it is in fact a Spanish word and pronounced as such.

 

FTFY.

 

Pardon-moi, M. Le Beouf.