I have a thing for accents. Always have. Scottish has always been one of my favorites. So has Australian. But I love them all. British, Russian, Polish (yes, that's for you, Jan and Eva!), Chinese even. It's rather ironic I have a daughter with an accent and I love it!
I even love all the different accents within America. I grew up moving all over the country and wouldn't trade that for the world. In the English I learned we park the car, but I've lived in Rhode Island where they pahk the kah and I've been to Boston where they pack the ka. I can do New York and I love the midwest with that flat "a" they use, even though I can't seem to say it myself.
I can even speak some of them. I was 4-7 when I lived in Rhode Island and Mom got after me for telling a friend I was going to ask my "muthuh" something. "No." she said. "We may live here but we don't have to talk that way. Mother has an 'r' at the end of it. I am your mother, not your 'muthuh.'" Seems to me there may have been a similar story from when we lived in Charlotte, NC and I was trying to speak southern but I'm not sure. Oh, and just in case you're wondering, yes, they do sing in a southern accent in those states. Just like there was seriously an add in the paper in Rhode Island one time advertising a "5 draw dresser." You know, those things in the dresser you put your clothes in? Yep. Draws.
I remember one time in Rhode Island where mom was having a really hard time understanding the nurse at the doctor's office. She asked her how her "hot and longs" were. Now remember, I was a small child at the time but it went something like this.
Nurse: "How are your hot and longs?
Mom: "What?"
Nurse: "Your hot and longs."
Mom: "Excuse me? What was that?"
Nurse, getting a bit annoyed: "Your hot and longs!"
Mom: "I'm really sorry but I'm not quite sure what you're asking about."
Nurse: "You know! Your hot beat!"
Mom: "Oh! Yes! My heart and lungs are fine."
There is one accent I can't seem to quite get a grasp on though and that's Utah. I've lived here for more than half my life and I still can't get it. I realize that most of you reading this are probably born and raised here and have no idea you actually have an accent. Please don't be offended. Remember, I love accents. :) I just can't get yours. To me, those things at the bottoms of your windows are sills (short I), not seals (long E.) And those black animals that flap their flippers are seals, not sills. Dale has a long A sound and is not pronounced "Del" with a short E.
I used to work as an ASL interpreter. I was in a 5th grade class and we were doing English. The teacher, a very good friend of mine, happened to be teaching about homophones. I was trying to explain this concept to my student. Rather interesting since he's Deaf and all. The teacher started to give examples of homophones and at one point I stopped interpreting, turned to her and asked, "Those are homophones to you??" I wish I could remember what the words were, but yes. They were homophones to her. Not to me though. I'd have said them very differently.
Just yesterday I was chatting with my cute neighbor that I love. She was telling me all about how we won't be seeing her daughter visit much anymore (her granddaughter comes over to play when they're in town) because they're moving to Wells for a year. In my head I'm thinking, "Wells. Okay. That's not so far they can't come visit now and then. It's just in Nevada. I wonder why in the world they'd be going there though." She was looking at me, obviously not expecting me to be somewhat confused at why they couldn't visit anymore. Then she mentioned the UK. Oh! That makes much more sense as to why they won't be visiting anymore. I'm still thinking that I've never heard of this place though. Must be some smaller town in the UK or something. It wasn't until dinner last night when I was telling my parents about the conversation that it finally clicked, thanks to Mom. Wales. She meant Wales. Yes, I've heard of Wales. To me though, it has a long A sound and not a short E sound.
18 years here and I still can't get it.
No comments:
Post a Comment