Comments | primroseburrows: weeping on a willow, sleeping on a pillow, leaping armadillo, yes!

primroseburrows

weeping on a willow, sleeping on a pillow, leaping armadillo, yes!

Feb 05, 2007 17:39

I know I'm procrastinating when I'm actually surfing Wikipedia. But y'know, find things. Like the page on the Boston accent"The Boston accent is the English dialect not only of the city of Boston, Massachusetts itself but also much of eastern Massachusetts." Check ( Read more... )

linguistics, random, pointless posts, procrastination

Comments 25

topaz7 February 5 2007, 23:58:39 UTC

"Drive slow your car" "Tro me down the stairs my coat"

I wonder if they say "close the light" too. Or "I am living Woonsocket since now six years". (J'habite Woonsocket depuis maintenant six ans)

French culture has contributed so much to the US, I find it highly ironic that hating the French is a national pastime. All those cities with names like Coeur D'Alene, Belleville, Baton Rouge, Detroit, Eau Claire, etc., etc. VERMONT is a french name ;)

primroseburrows February 6 2007, 00:52:24 UTC

I know Italians from RI say "close the light". I thought it was the strangest thing when I first heard it.

I love the French! I guess I did well to pick that other national pastime. *g*

topaz7 February 6 2007, 01:20:10 UTC

I love baseball, too. Except for those accursed Boston Red Sox, of course. *g*

Or is that Bawwwwstin Red Saawwwwx?

primroseburrows February 6 2007, 03:08:55 UTC

It's "Bawstin Red Sawks". :P

missapocalyptic February 6 2007, 00:22:34 UTC

*high-fives fellow wikipedia-surfer* We win at life, eh ( ... )

primroseburrows February 6 2007, 02:49:06 UTC

Yay! *adds to del.icio.us list* I actually can read more German than I can speak, mostly because a lot of German words look like their English counterpart.

The two American English passages they have don't sound that different. Michigan usually has a more distinct accent.

There are a bunch of recordings of different North American accents here. Rhode Island isn't on there. Cape Breton is (get past the reading she does to where she starts to talk. That's the real accent. *loves*) The whole site is very cool.

organist89 February 8 2007, 07:03:02 UTC

I love reading about them and would love a source from where I can get a list of English dialect audio tracks...

http://accent.gmu.edu/

Have a ball ;-)

primroseburrows February 8 2007, 08:02:42 UTC

Woah, this is great! I've saved it to del.icio.us. Yay!

newleaf31 February 6 2007, 00:30:46 UTC

I have nothing intelligent to say, but I did want to let you know that I'm totally geekish enough to have read this post with great relish. But you expected nothing less, right?

It kinda sounds like Rhode Islanders might share accent elements with people from Jersey even more than New Yorkers. In Jersey they'd pronounce it CvreeAAAAAAAnstin -- a little more "r" mixed in with the "v," and weighty on the bleated "aaaaa," with a clipped short "i" at the end instead of the shewa that normal people (read: those of us who are not Jersey natives) would use.

I'm using this icon with the understanding that, in this case, one should replace "even if your voice shakes" with "even if you sound like you're from Jersey."

organist89 February 8 2007, 07:01:59 UTC

Okay, I'm going to go ahead and infer, from how WRONG you are, that you're not from Jersey. :-P

I AM from Jersey.

If it's Cranston we're talking about, it would be "craanstin". I agree with your use of the word "bleat" to describe the "a". Goats bleat. So do we Jerseyites.

But where you're wrong is the "v" thing. No way in hell would you hear a "v" in there with a Jersey accent. It would be "cr", like in Chris or crispy--very quick. The "a" thing though, that's what would give my Jerseyness away to the unsuspecting stranger.

I will say, though, that it's not THAT obscenely drawn-out. Maybe some comedians do it for the laugh-factor...but it's not so terribly blatant. Sure, you can clearly hear the bleat. But it's not like we stop everything and spend 10 seconds going "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa". That's kind of a stereotype.

primroseburrows February 8 2007, 08:05:05 UTC

It's only a minor exaggeration in RI. They really do say Cveeeanstin. Which is why I'll deflect all attempts by the universe to get me to talk like them. *clutches remnants of MA accent*

Furthermore... organist89 March 10 2007, 10:03:15 UTC

Sorry, I wasn't ready to let this die :-)

As time goes on, I'm becoming more and more involved with Wikipedia. I've recently joined their spoken articles project, and I recorded my first article today (not coincidentally it's the ceiling fan article *g*). Note my north Jersey accent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cfan.ogg

isiscolo February 6 2007, 01:06:17 UTC

Oh, this is my favorite kind of post EVER. I love language and regional variations and accents and, you know, stuff.

And I have been to Woonsocket! I am trying to remember why. I think I did a triathlon there, or near there, once.

primroseburrows February 6 2007, 03:13:00 UTC

I have never done a trialthlon, in Woonsocket or anywhere else. *looks at lumpy body* Maybe I should consider it.

You're from waay far away from here and you've been to Woonsocket and I haven't. In the smallest state in the US. There is clearly something wrong with this picture.

Also, *points to icon* you have the honour of officially inspiring the first icon I've ever made that I'm actually proud of. Well, you and Stan Rogers, but unfortunately I can't exactly tell him that. *sigh* Go you! *high-fives*

isiscolo February 6 2007, 03:19:56 UTC

I am proud to share a paragraph with Stan Rogers!

primroseburrows February 6 2007, 03:33:52 UTC

And the Bluenose. Visually, anyway. :)

_divya_ February 6 2007, 01:56:37 UTC

I'm listening to the Dorchester guy right now. <3<3<3<3! This whole post, god, I could spend hours reading about stuff like this. Yay!

non-rhoticity

Oh, is that what it's called? I always called it, "you know, that thing wheah we don't always say ah ahs?"

primroseburrows February 6 2007, 03:33:10 UTC

I never knew what it was called, either. Now I can boast about my non-rhoticity, and tease my Canadian friends about their Canadian Raising.

_divya_ February 6 2007, 22:51:14 UTC

I know, Canadian Raising! I love that that's linked from the Boston one, too, because I've been mistaken for Canadian before, and I always thought it was just because Boston shares vowel sounds with a generic Canadian accent (mainly saying O sounds as awwww, not ahhhh), but Raising never occurred to me. ::geeks out::

primroseburrows February 7 2007, 00:25:48 UTC

Boston's thicker and flatter than say, Toronto, but the way we say our O sounds is similar. And then there's the Maine accent, which is like Canada and Massachusetts got together and had a baby. It's got the non-rhoticity (and you just KNOW I'm going to use the term to death) AND the Canadian Raising.