American English: Regional Dialects?

It's usually "thuh", and I use the long vowel "a" in "a historic site". Certain H-words get the "an" treatment, usually it's "hour" (an hour). I can't really think of any terms unique to my town.
 
I always use "a" before words that start in a consonant sound and "an" before words that start with a vowel sound. So like Nicky said, "an hour," but "a historic site," and "a one dollar bill."

Whether it's "thuh" or "thee" depends on stress. Usually it's unstressed and gets the schwa. Actually, for me it's the difference between "duh/nuh" and "thee."

"ratatene`" -- prune fingers (pronounced rahtahtehnay) I think mostly only my family uses that one, though. And I pretty much made up the spelling, because I've never seen it written.

"coonass" -- these are the people who live deep in bayou country and make livings by shrimping or whatnot. They usually spend a lot of time on the water. At least that's probably who it originally refers to. Nowadays it's kind of like a person who's not quite sane and likes to party a lot. Having never had the word defined, it's hard for me to pin a meaning on it, but I think actually the two above work well as two different senses of the word.

"nutria (rat)" -- not really slang, but this is what you may refer to as an ROUS (if you've seen "The Princess Bride"). They're nasty rodents with huge burnt orange teeth. They mostly hang out in the swamps. I know they aren't native, but I can't remember where they were brought in from (although I believe it was somewhere in Southeast Asia), and I don't feel like looking it up.

That's all I've got for now.
 
hmmm, boat as "bewt"? That's strange to me. Sounds hauntingly familiar when I start speaking british though. lol
 
I thought of some more:

"bateau(x)" -- not sure it it's spelled with an "x"; I've never seen it written either. It means a flat-bottom boat, usually 14-16 ft. long.

"pirogue" -- pronunciations vary on this one. I say "piroh," others say

"pirog" (where the "rog" is like "log"). This is like a canoe, but not quite.

"T-" -- this is a prefix I think usually used for Jrs., but I believe it can also be used like the Japanese suffix -chan. It comes from the Cajun French "tit," which is an abbreviation of the French "petit," meaning "small." So there's T-Mike, T-Rob, T-Man, etc.

"parrain" -- we use this for godfather. I don't know of one for godmother, aside from "nanny." It's a bit strange this one wouldn't have a pair. I'll have to ask some family and friends to be sure about that, though.

"tante" -- aunt

"nonc" -- uncle. I'm not sure how often these last two are used anymore, though.

If you want to look at food names, then aside from the more commonly known ones like gumbo, jambalaya, and etouffee, we have boudin ("boo-dan," although if you want to get technical the "a" is nasalized, like the "a" in "can't," and the "n" is only scarcely pronounced if at all), hog's head cheese, and tasso.
 
Hey Glenn, my father in law is from New Orleans... there are a couple of Creole terms he still throws out there once in a while... but I think after 63 years of living in California, we have corrupted him.
 
Haha, yeah, 63 years is a long time to live somewhere. I could see how he could forget a lot. I have trouble remembering sometimes too. It's always fun to go back home and here people throw them out again, though.

I'd like to give you some Hawaiian ones, too, but I really don't know many. All I can think of right now is "kine," which is basically the same as "thing," and "ha'ole," which means "non-(native) Hawaiian." The first is from Pidgin (or Hawai'i Creole English) and the second is from Hawaiian. "Pono" is a good one: it basically means "harmony," and it comes from Hawaiian.
 
Dem good one, brudda. Me tinks Hawaiian is on of da rare dialects of English dat we all should learn.
 
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