Accent and Dialect

Discussion in 'History and Culture' started by The Rhetoric of Life, Apr 4, 2021.

  1. The Rhetoric of Life

    The Rhetoric of Life Banned

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    What is your accent?
    What accents are from where you're from, will hear and hear a compatriot?

    Wherever I am, I hear this


    I know you're British, and ask if you've heard of Croydon, knowing me.


    My accent, is almost textbook, and this.


    What do you sound like accent wise? What do your people sound like?

    My father and his side of the family all have a different regional accent, called Cockney, so I was raised by a Cockney in Croydon; I don't sound like that but thanks to his teachings of his lingo' in growing up in the homestead, I can understand what he means when he speaks Cockney.
     
    Last edited: Apr 4, 2021
  2. Montegriffo

    Montegriffo Well-Known Member

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  3. Dazed and Confused

    Dazed and Confused Newly Registered

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    Native Rhode Islanders speak "non-rhotic" English. It is a variant found in coastal southern and southwestern England as far back at the latter part of the 15th century. It was (there) spoken by seafaring people--merchant sailors, fishermen, dock workers, naval personnel, and the like. I explain the key element of the dialect toward the end of this story.

    It was brought to Rhode Island by those types of occupations, because Newport, Rhode Island was a large trading and slaving town in comparison to most others in the American colonies, except Philadelphia, New York and Boston. Rhode Islanders traveled the world as seafarers, for example in the triangular trade (iron ingots to Africa to trade the chiefs for slaves, slaves to the Caribbean for sugar, and sugar to New England to make rum.) Different quality sugars were used for different purposes. The darkest,wettest, least refined "muscado" almost like molasses, was used for rum, but of course the more refined and more expensive used to sweeten foods.

    Providence was an important smuggling center, so much so the British had a naval vessel cruising Narragansett Bay to intercept the smuggling vessels. In fact, the patricians in Massachusetts Bay Colony called Rhode Island, "Rogues Island," because the Rhode Islanders were not careful to follow the law in pursuit of profit. There is still today a statue of "Independent Man" on the dome of the state house, and Rhode Islanders don't like obeying stupid laws, like stopping at a stop sign as 2 a.m. when there is no one coming in any direction, or "25 mile per hour" speed limits--come on, who drives that slowly?

    Rhode Islanders also fished and sold most of the dried cod consumed by the slaves on the Caribbean Island to the plantation owners. "Narragansett Pacers" were a particular breed/trained horse sold to planters in the Caribbean, having been bred and trained in Rhode Island.

    You hear about "Cape Cod," and "Maine Lobsters," but the major fishing locale was Rhode Island. The lobsters in Rhode Island waters were so plentiful, they were used as fertilizer by the farmers near the coast. They were not considered delicacies at the time. I haven't examined the statistics recently, but Rhode Island still has a sizeable seafood industry. When I was a kid, my family used to go down to a beach, search for small breathing holes in the sand for soft shelled clams, ("steamers" we called them because we steamed them in a large pot to cook them), and dug them up by hand or with trowels. The large "Quahogs," (pronounced "Quahoags") a Narragansett Indian name for the large hard shelled clams, and "cherry stones," the smaller sweeter variety you eat by sucking out the insides after spraying them with a bit of lemon juice or hot sauce, were dug up with "bull rakes" standing in tidal flats up to one's knees in the muck. One flips the clams (generic remember, they are really "Quahogs," into a basket tied with a bit of rope to one's belt. The large "Quahogs" are used to make stuffed clams, which are baked, and for chowder, or more accurately, "chowdah." The smaller ones, the cherry stones, are a high cost food sold in restaurants for those who want to brag about being able to shell out the dough for them, (no pun intended.) So many clam shells were available in the past, they were used to pave driveways instead of crushed stone. You still see crushed shell driveways in neighborhoods near the ocean.

    "Non-rhotic dialect" means the speakers, (like me today, 74 years old and living in Florida), drop the "r's" and substitute "ah's." So, "car" is "cah," "far" is "fah." (Not to be confused with the "Duh" one hears in Florida....

    Non-rhotic English dialect is also find a bit in New York, and Australia. If you think about trade and movement of peoples, that makes sense, for both of those places would also attract seafaring peoples from England. Although Boston upper classes have been considered the poster children for using "ah" to replace "r," the linguistic research I read did not mention Boston as a major location where the dialect persists.

    Non-rhotic dialect was spoken by lower class uneducated people. Again, that makes sense, given their seafaring occupations.
     
  4. Bluesguy

    Bluesguy Well-Known Member Donor

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    Southern...............Deep South to be exact. Not too heavy unless I'm drinking but when I lived in Chicago the women loved it.
     
  5. Chrizton

    Chrizton Well-Known Member

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    IDK. I used to get the "You ain't from around here, are ya?" comment based on my accent in the town I lived in most of my life. My accent itself is closer to the neutral American accent due to speech therapy in elementary school. My parents had very different accents both being from other places and my older siblings had their own combinations of them. I was just a scatter gun of them all and fairly inconsistent in how I pronounced words. There are some words I cannot say because my tongue trips over the many different ways I have said them---notably "rural", "roof" and "bush"

    Since then, my bigger problem has been colloquial sayings, phrases and words people aren't familiar with throwing people off. A lot of people just ignore them, but my youngest sister will still say "Yeah, I have no idea what that means, but..."
     
  6. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    Mine is a real mish-mash.

    Much is from living for decades in California. So I have the shifting vowel sound and unusual way of talking from there. But also add in the many years of growing up in Idaho, with a bit of that "Western Twang" added in from that.

    Then over a decade living in the South, including Alabama, North Carolina, and Texas. That added in even more. Most people have a hell of a time figuring out where I am from, unless asked to name a freeway. That is one of the most sure fire ways to know somebody is from California.
     
  7. Basset Hound

    Basset Hound Active Member

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    Depends. My Amurcan has a Chicaguh accent. When I speak Afrikaans, I sound like a Rhodie. When I get excited, my Rhodie accent comes out in English. My Spanish and Basque have a strong Navarrese accent.
     
  8. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Midwest. Which afaict isn't any different than PNW, except I learned to say 'catty-corner' and here they say 'kitty-corner.'
     
  9. Capt Nice

    Capt Nice Well-Known Member

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    Born in the rust belt of Michigan I've always thought I had no accent of any kind. However, over the years I've had a few people that were able to guess where I was from even though I left Michigan in 1976.
     
  10. Lindis

    Lindis Banned

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    When I am speaking in German, my dialect is Alemannic - like they speak in Switzerland.
    When I am speaking English, my accent is British. Northern English with a touch of Scottish, maybe.
     

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