What's. Your nationality?

[LegoGE1947]

I’m wondering where you get “AR-kin-sore” from “Ar-KAN-sas”. Or “Nawlins” from “New Orleans”.

This I understand. If “Noel” is to be pronounced “No-el”, it should have the dieresis over the ‘e’ (“Noël”). As a forename, I routinely hear it as “Nole”, as in the actor Noel Harrison.

That’s the weird thing about proper names – the relationship between spelling and pronunciation is often far more tenuous than it is for the remainder of the vocabulary.

Here in Newfoundland, we have an ironic example. The name of the town of Baie d’Espoir – meaning “Bay of Hope” – is pronounced “Bay Despair”.

Where I come from we pronounce Arkansas as “AR-kan-saw” I’ve always pronounced New Orleans as “New or-LEENS” We can always tell some one who is not from Illinois or surrounding states because they pronounce “Iliinoyse” For us that last letter “s” is silent as in Illinoy

 

[Havard]

I’m an American.

In sunny, beautiful California. :tanning:

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

I think the deal is that many original settlers in the Midwest named their new towns after places they left behind in Europe. The French settled in the upper Midwest and as a result lots of the towns and cities reflect a French influence by their names, such as Dubuque, Versailles, Rochelle, Beloit, etc.

Not just the upper Midwest. Pretty much the entire Louisiana purchase.

 

[LegoGE1947]

Not just the upper Midwest. Pretty much the entire Louisiana purchase.

Especially Louisiana itself! It even has parishes instead of counties. And you consider how many cities in Louisiana have French names.

 

[phil_at_dayboro]

Especially Louisiana itself! It even has parishes instead of counties. And you consider how many cities in Louisiana have French names.

I met a lady from Louisiana … I loved the way she pronounced the word theatre ,
Thee. Aiterr

 

[LegoGE1947]

I met a lady from Louisiana … I loved the way she pronounced the word theatre ,

Thee. Aiterr

That pronunciation seems common with most people from the South regardless of where they come from. How about Poe-leese-man for policeman. I hear lots of African-Americans pronounce it this way. Cracks me up!

 

[Havard]

I met a lady from Louisiana … I loved the way she pronounced the word theatre ,

Thee. Aiterr

Speaking of accents, there’s an Aussie voice actor that’s doing a commercial in the States right now, and every time I hear him say “you”, I worry he’s choking or gasping for air or something. I always thought the word was just pronounced “yoo”, but this guy seems to have incorporated all five vowels in it somehow, and rather dramatically at that.

 

[phil_at_dayboro]

That pronunciation seems common with most people from the South regardless of where they come from. How about Poe-leese-man for policeman. I hear lots of African-Americans pronounce it this way. Cracks me up!

Yes,,,, and you can't laugh at people that have such a strong accent,,

Because of political correctness ,

But people can sound funny,

 

[LegoGE1947]

Yes, and you can’t laugh at people that have such a strong accent,
Because of political correctness ,

But people can sound funny,

I don’t laugh at them. It just sounds funny. But I suppose I sound funny to them at times.

 

[LongingSoul]

Speaking of accents, there’s an Aussie voice actor that’s doing a commercial in the States right now, and every time I hear him say “you”, I worry he’s choking or gasping for air or something. I always thought the word was just pronounced “yoo”, but this guy seems to have incorporated all five vowels in it somehow, and rather dramatically at that.

It does seem that ours is a hard one to mimic accurately. This comedian tells it funny…

youtube.com/watch?v=KpBYnL5fAXE

 

[GEddie]

Accents are heap good fun…I imagine because here in NA, we have so few of them, compared to the European countries.

TX is neither Midwest nor Louisiana, but has many old Spanish place names; but the pronunciations are outlandish.

 

[phil_at_dayboro]

I think everyone should start at page one,and read everything,it’s an enjoyable read…
This has been on of the better threads…

 

[LegoGE1947]

I think everyone should start at page one,and read everything,it’s an enjoyable read…
This has been on of the better threads…

Have you seen recently the poll that says Illinois is the state people most want to leave? Hawaii, Montana and Maine are the states people least want to leave.

 

[Sarcelle]

Have you seen recently the poll that says Illinois is the state people most want to leave? Hawaii, Montana and Maine are the states people least want to leave.

Really? I thought it was Michigan that people most want to leave.

I didn’t want to leave Hawaii either but having been laid off my chances were better in finding a job in my field of engineering elsewhere.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Where I come from we pronounce Arkansas as “AR-kan-saw” I’ve always pronounced New Orleans as “New or-LEENS” We can always tell some one who is not from Illinois or surrounding states because they pronounce “Iliinoyse” For us that last letter “s” is silent as in Illinoy

My New Orleanian girlfriend of long ago, and her friends, pronounced it “Nee’ AHlens” with a sort of nasal thing to it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

One peculiarity of southern accents is that, while they vary enormously from place to place, there is a similarity to them that makes exact locale difficult to identify (excepting of course for truly strange accents like that of New Orleans). And too, any version at all imparts recognition that one is NOT a Yankee.

Many years ago when my college friends and I traveled in the Deep South, the dislike of Yankees was a good deal more intense than it is now. Anybody in the South instantly knows a Yankee by his accent. But my own accent, which is very much “upper South”, rather than deep South, still has the sound, and my “southernness” was always recognized, no matter where I was. So my Yankee companions always had me speak for them in an unfamiliar situation.

Yep, it was a little tense at the time.

Oh, and non-southerners should NEVER try to fake a southern accent. It won’t work.

 

[bitterhope]

One peculiarity of southern accents is that, while they vary enormously from place to place, there is a similarity to them that makes exact locale difficult to identify (excepting of course for truly strange accents like that of New Orleans). And too, any version at all imparts recognition that one is NOT a Yankee.

Many years ago when my college friends and I traveled in the Deep South, the dislike of Yankees was a good deal more intense than it is now. Anybody in the South instantly knows a Yankee by his accent. But my own accent, which is very much “upper South”, rather than deep South, still has the sound, and my “southernness” was always recognized, no matter where I was. So my Yankee companions always had me speak for them in an unfamiliar situation.

Yep, it was a little tense at the time.

Oh, and non-southerners should NEVER try to fake a southern accent. It won’t work.

Yes, this southern girl can assure you nothing flares my temper worse than someone trying to fake a southern accent.

I honestly don’t have anything against Yankees. My mom’s whole family lives up north (Connecticut and Vermont), but if someone in a movie or in real life fakes a southern accent I not only can spot it a mile away, it boils my blood. It’s insulting and comes across as mocking. I would never try to fake another accent, especially as sloppy as people do the southern drawl.

We’ve lived all over since we got married. My kids have no hometown. I’ll always be a southern girl though. My husband is from another country so his accent is completely different than mine, and none of our kids talk like either one of us. They all have a strange blend of multiple accents from all the moving we’ve done. The little ones before they start school and are home with me full time have a slight southern drawl, and they can speak spanish with a Veracruz accent as littles, too (thanks to dad), but when they start school it kind of gets jumbled with whatever region/country we are in at the moment.

 

[LegoGE1947]

One peculiarity of southern accents is that, while they vary enormously from place to place, there is a similarity to them that makes exact locale difficult to identify (excepting of course for truly strange accents like that of New Orleans). And too, any version at all imparts recognition that one is NOT a Yankee.

Many years ago when my college friends and I traveled in the Deep South, the dislike of Yankees was a good deal more intense than it is now. Anybody in the South instantly knows a Yankee by his accent. But my own accent, which is very much “upper South”, rather than deep South, still has the sound, and my “southernness” was always recognized, no matter where I was. So my Yankee companions always had me speak for them in an unfamiliar situation.

Yep, it was a little tense at the time.

Oh, and non-southerners should NEVER try to fake a southern accent. It won’t work.

In my case a southerner who I knew in the Navy said most non-southerners seemed to him to talk very fast. He was amazed that I did not.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yes, this southern girl can assure you nothing flares my temper worse than someone trying to fake a southern accent.

I honestly don’t have anything against Yankees. My mom’s whole family lives up north (Connecticut and Vermont), but if someone in a movie or in real life fakes a southern accent I not only can spot it a mile away, it boils my blood. It’s insulting and comes across as mocking. I would never try to fake another accent, especially as sloppy as people do the southern drawl.

We’ve lived all over since we got married. My kids have no hometown. I’ll always be a southern girl though. My husband is from another country so his accent is completely different than mine, and none of our kids talk like either one of us. They all have a strange blend of multiple accents from all the moving we’ve done. The little ones before they start school and are home with me full time have a slight southern drawl, and they can speak spanish with a Veracruz accent as littles, too (thanks to dad), but when they start school it kind of gets jumbled with whatever region/country we are in at the moment.

In the area where I live, there are several accents, all southern except that the true “hillbilly accent” isn’t of quite the same nature. But it’s counted as southern.

Another is what is sometimes referred to as the “Arkahoma accent”; a sort of southern/southwestern mixture. All truckers seem to have adopted it. Mildly amusing thing, I know an Asian doctor whose son became a doctor. The father was born in Asia, but the son was born here. Anyway, the son picked up a very major “Arkahoma” accent locally. I can just imagine how new patients are sometimes surprised to hear that come from the mouth of an Asian. It would be kind of like hearing a very Hispanic-looking person with a very Texas accent. Some Hispanics have lived in Texas since the dawn of time, and a lot of them have Texas accents that are not normally associated with Hispanics at all. Kind of like listening to a black person with a hillbilly accent (I have). You just don’t expect it.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

In my case a southerner who I knew in the Navy said most non-southerners seemed to him to talk very fast. He was amazed that I did not.

When I am in the south it is all I can do to not strangle the person taking my order somewhere.

I am a fast paced guy.

That drawl wastes my precious time!