Regional Dialects

[hoodat]

Here's something I've always wondered about. When I watch the national news, the announcers sound just like me. Do they sound southern to yall? Someone said that they train to not have any accent.... how come they don't sound funny talking without an accent?

Most news people talk with a mid America accent which is kind of neutral. A lot of them are Canadian from parts of Canada where the accent is similar to the mid west.

 

[OldGuy43]

When I first came to Texas I had to learn a whole new language. Some examples are:

Here in Texas we mash buttons and smoosh bugs.
There's a new time. Fixin' to. That's the time between when we decide to do something and when we actually start doing it.
Jansen - He used to be our President, President Jansen!
"My Buck" does not mean you own a deer, it refers to your knife as in, "I was a sharpin'in' my Buck."
Tank means a man-made pond.
"The war o' the See-session" refers to the Civil War.
I'm goin' ridin' " has nothing to do with a car.
"Knowin' it" means I agree with you.
"Directly" means in a little while. "We're goin' to town directly." Usually pronounced DI-rectly.
"The coast" refers to the Gulf Coast.
Y'all (you all) can mean just one person.
Ice House is a beer bar, usually an open-sided building.
"Boots" means cowboy boots. Anything else is "hippy" boots.
"Not my first rodeo" means I'm not new to this.

 

[Kassaundra]

Near where I lived in Oklahoma there is a Brazil Creek only it is pronounced Brazle (hard A). The Force Malin Creek is called the Foosh and the town of Reichert somehow came to be pronounced Richie.

And don't forget Battiest, Hoodat.

Should be "batty" change the "y" to "i" and add "est" or batty-est, that is what I learned in English class anyway, but here in Okie land it is pronounced ba-tee-st

Here it is pop or coke (no matter the flavor) I was raised all over and call it soda.

A lot of words that end in an "a" get and "ey" sound, like a local town called Kinta, is pronounced Kin-tee.

words like fire are (far) or tire (tar)

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

You go to the filling station to get your tars aired up and your all checked.

 

[baymule]

OldGuy43, you forgot yonder!

Yonder is a measurement of distance of undetermined distance. Yonder can mean anything as close as "that thang settin' in that chair yonder". Yonder can also mean a great distance such as "Naw, he ain't here, he went yonder and done been gone a couple days".

Then there's Yonder Ways. This is reserved for extreme distance. "Looky yonder ways at that moon, woodja?"

 

[hoodat]

Near where I lived in Oklahoma there is a Brazil Creek only it is pronounced Brazle (hard A). The Force Malin Creek is called the Foosh and the town of Reichert somehow came to be pronounced Richie.

And don't forget Battiest, Hoodat.

Should be "batty" change the "y" to "i" and add "est" or batty-est, that is what I learned in English class anyway, but here in Okie land it is pronounced ba-tee-st

Here it is pop or coke (no matter the flavor) I was raised all over and call it soda.

A lot of words that end in an "a" get and "ey" sound, like a local town called Kinta, is pronounced Kin-tee.

words like fire are (far) or tire (tar)

Quite a few Indian words have also crept into the language. In the Choctaw and Creek nations you will often hear money refered to as "skully" even by whites. Skullyville was where the first Indian Agency in the Choctaw nation was set up and was where the annual money allotment from the government was paid, thus the name.