American English: Regional Dialects?

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I thought I revive this discussion: What differences do you hear in regional dialects in the United States? Do you talk with an "accent?" or is it everyone else? What words and phrases do you say that are unique to your region?

How do you address a group of people: You, you all, y'all, you'ums, all y'all, youse...?

Is the word "every" two or three syllables?

Does "Aunt" sound like "ant" or "ahhnt"

Do you call your father- dad, pop, pops, daddy, pa,...?

That big sandwhich is it a hogie, hero, submarine, sub, po-boy...?

Do you put your groceries in a sack, bag, or poke?

http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/dare/dare.html
 
Sorry to stick my English English nose in here :bluush: but it just struck me that in English English we don't really have a word for the plural 'you'. On the internet I've even started using y'all sometimes! :eek: I sometimes say 'you lot', but it's not quite formal... :blush:

It would be handy if we had a word like that...
 
sabro said:
...That big sandwhich is it a hogie, hero, submarine, sub, po-boy...?
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po-boy (poor boy) doesnt fit in there, its chopped beef brisket with BBQ sauce on a hamburger bun. ive only ever heard it used in that context, never describing a sub, hogie or other.
 
jeisan said:
po-boy (poor boy) doesnt fit in there, its chopped beef brisket with BBQ sauce on a hamburger bun. ive only ever heard it used in that context, never describing a sub, hogie or other.
Click to expand...
In Florida, where I'm from, a po-boy can be any sandwich with meat and cheese on a roll.
 
I definitely have a southern accent, but I try to use proper English. Well, most of the time. It depends on who I'm around.

I call my mother and father "Mama and Daddy", I call one grandma "Me-Ma" and one grandma "Nana". I call a sandwich like that a "sub". I say "y'all" all the time, don't even think twice about it. I say "supper" instead of "dinner". There are so many examples...

I'm not quite as bad as the average person around these here parts, though. :p
 
When i was little(i.e 3-10yrs old), i called my mum "mummy" and when my dad was alive, "daddy", but as i grew older i just refer to them as mum and dad- i've always called my grandparents by their names/nicknames though ever since i was little, and i usually refer to my brother by his first name or just "brother"(as in "bruh-ther". I've always directly called my grandparents in australia though "grandpa" and "granny"(although my gran passed away many years ago now).
I pronouce "Aunt" like ""aern't" or "ahhnt" and "Uncle" as "Un-call"- i pronouce "Cousin" as "Cuh-zin" :relief: .
I put my groceries in a shopping bag, which usually then gets shoved into the back seat of the car :blush: .
One thing i noticed the other day while speaking to an american friend of mine, i refer to hair ties as hair bands, or just "hair ties", but my friend refers to them as "hair elastics".
 
A poboy to me is a sandwich on French or Italian bread with meat on it, like seafood poboys, turkey poboys, ham poboys, shrimp poboys, crawfish poboys, etc. And we spell it without the hyphen.

I say "y'all," "ant," "dad," and "bag." "Every" has two syllables.

I most definitely talk with an accent. The demonstratives "this," "that," "these," and "those" are commonly "dis," "dat," "dese," and "dose," and also "nis," "nat," "nese," and "nose" when they're followed by "n." Syllable final "l"s become "w"s in many cases, and I almost never pronounce the diphtong in the word "I" (and perhaps others, but I can't think of them right now). "Pen" and "pin" sound the same. "Father," "water," "smart," and "awful" all have the same first vowel sound (it's the low-mid back rounded lax vowel, if that means anything to you).

I think my syntax is pretty standard now; I managed to get rid of some of the more regional locutions, like "fixin' to eat" and "went go see a movie." Actually, I don't think I ever used "fixin'" like that. Anyway, I think that's about it.
 
Here in the Midwest, I noticed the difference in how people speak. For some reason, it seems that people from the West Coast call "soda pop" "soda" while here in the Midwest we say "pop". This may not be a dialect in a sense, but it was something I notcied. For instance, people in the Midwest end their sentences with "at." :p
 
My paternal grandmother from Ohio spoke almost perfect English-- except that she used the word "don't" instead of "doesn't" as in "he don't like it."

What do you call your mother-- mine is always "mom."
 
I realized that I made a couple of mistakes (at least) in my above post.

1) Technically it's not "dis," "dat," "dese," and "dose," those "d"s are actually flaps, not the voiced alveolar stop (if anyone cares).

2) I meant they become "nis," etc. after "n," not before it. It doesn't make much sense the way I have it.

About the drink question, see here.
 
i have a Japanese friend who went to school for a year in the South and now she speaks in an souther accent... kinda funny.
 
I had some Canadian friends that said "ay" a lot and used a serviette at the table and watched tv from the chesterfield...

My boys call one Grandmother "grandma Foster" and the other one "Nana."

The other term is for the freeway, highway, interstate, route ...etc. In southern california we call them freeways.
 
I have never heard the term "poboy". I call them hoagies, or sub if Im going to Subway. Or sandwich if it's just some meat in between some wonder bread.

In Utah we say Soda.

Aunt to me is pronounced "ANT"

I call my mom "Mom" and dad "Dad".

We call them Freeways too, but if the speed limit is 40-50, we call it a highway. Depends on the person though.

In Utah, I don't know about anywhere else but we tend to leave out the t's in words like Mountain, and Layton. So it's pronounced Mou'N, and Lay'N etc.

I guess it really depends on the person. Because we really have a variety of dialects in Utah.

I have been told that I sound like Im from California. I don't know why. I am always asked if Im from there.

When I give presentations, I sound british or scotish. I even do it during casual conversation sometimes. According to my friends, I gave an entire presentation talking british. Nerves I guess.

I hate it though when people say,"Where's it at?" or "It's funner that way".
I am a grammar freak...Oh well...
 
Mitsuo Oda said:
In Utah, I don't know about anywhere else but we tend to leave out the t's in words like Mountain, and Layton. So it's pronounced Mou'N, and Lay'N etc.
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That happens a fair amount where I'm from too. Come to think of it, I think I pronounce them like "moun'n" and "Lay'n."
 
http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/californian/

Rings true for me.
In the speech of white people in California, as in many parts of the west, the vowels of hock and hawk, cot and caught, are pronounced the same—so awesome rhymes with possum. Also notable is the movement of the vowels in boot and boat (called back vowels because they are pronounced in the back of the mouth). These vowels all have a tendency to move forward in the mouth, so that the vowel in dude or spoon (as in gag mewith a…) sounds a little like the word you, or the vowel in pure or cute. Also, boat and loan often sound like bewt and lewn—or eeeeuuw.
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and
Research by Melissa Iwai and Norma Mendoza-Denton into generational differences among Japanese-Americans indicates that the oldest generation of Japanese American native speakers of English, the nisei, do exhibit a distinct patterning of vocalic and consonantal phenomena, while the yonsei, or fourth generation (now in their 20s and 30s) are indistinguishable from their white counterparts.
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Some times I pick up a kind of clipped rhythm common among Chicanos or the more drawling tones of the old San Gabriel valley, but I find it difficult to hear myself.
 
In the speech of white people in California, as in many parts of the west, the vowels of hock and hawk, cot and caught, are pronounced the same?\so awesome rhymes with possum. Also notable is the movement of the vowels in boot and boat (called back vowels because they are pronounced in the back of the mouth). These vowels all have a tendency to move forward in the mouth, so that the vowel in dude or spoon (as in gag mewith a?c) sounds a little like the word you, or the vowel in pure or cute. Also, boat and loan often sound like bewt and lewn?\or eeeeuuw.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much right on--exept for that last part.

I've lived in California my whole life, and I've never heard anyone call a boat a "bewt" :D

It was interesting to hear the differances when I went to Boston though--although most people I ran into there didn't seem to actually have an accent, those that did almost sounded like they were speaking a different language...

...it's a good thing I watched all those old gangster movies, or I'd never have understood that guy at the train station when he told me how to take the subway to my hotel. :relief:

Anyway, in answer to the origional post:

"You", sometimes "You guys"--regardless of gender...

...Every is pronounced "Evry", just two syllables...

...Aunt is pronounced "Ant"...

...Mother and Father are "*****" and "Bastard" respectively, or sometimes just "Mom" and "Dad"... :blush:

...The big sandwhich is a "sub"...

...and our groceries go in a "bag".

Also, as I mentioned in the other thread, soda's are called--well--"sodas".

For some wierd reason though, I have a tendancy to slip into a souther drawl sometimes--particularly if I'm making a joke...

...which is weird, because I've never been to the south.
 
sabro said:
http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/californian/
Click to expand...

Interesting read. The part about the differentiation of dialects due to creating social groups and the lack of a distinct Japanese influenced variety of English makes a good point about how studying dialects can show us who people identify themselves with.

I think it's a bit funny that there's a tone of debunking the stereotype of California speech, because I always thought of it as fairly close to the standard. This makes me wonder if anyone from California has ever gotten made fun of because people thought they should sound like a valley girl or a surfer. For instance, has anyone ever said "I'm from California," and had someone reply, "you don't sound like a surfer?"
 
How do you address a group of people: You, you all, y'all, you'ums, all y'all, youse...?
Is the word "every" two or three syllables?
Does "Aunt" sound like "ant" or "ahhnt"
Do you call your father- dad, pop, pops, daddy, pa,...?
That big sandwhich is it a hogie, hero, submarine, sub, po-boy...?
Do you put your groceries in a sack, bag, or poke?
Click to expand...
When addressing a group I use: you, you guys/people, all of you, and you all. When I say "auntie" it's always "ahhnt-ie". But when I say "aunt" it can be either "ant" or "ahhnt". I call my dad many things. "dad, pops, old man, father, father person(when I'm being silly), and daddy" are all fair game. o_O A big sandwhich is still a sandwhich, unless it's on a sub roll, then it is a sub. "hogie" is sometimes used depending on where you go in Boston, I don't use it though. My groceries go into (shopping) bags. "Every" is two or three syllables, it depends.
:bluush:
 
The word "the" can be pronounced "thuh" or "thee," Which is it? How about the article "a" before words begining with the letter "h"? Do you use "a historic site" or "an historic site"? Do you say "uh" or the long vowel sound "a"?

Are there any peculiar slang words or unique terms you know?
 
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