Do You Speak American?
 

In view of some of the squabbles here about who does and doesn't have an "accent," I recommend the show tonight (Wed. 1/5) on PBS called "Do You Speak American?" The website has some fun exercises (links on the right) so you can test your ear and see what passes as "standard" - http://www.pbs.org/speak/

No such langauge as American.

Would it be English with Americanisms?

Or English with an American dialect?

Hmmn. Veddy intearestink.

See the program, GoTravel -- actually it's 3 programs, 1 a week. The promos make it sound very interesting to Fodorites who claim to be able to recognize regionalisms and/or claim to speak a standard form of "American".

My mother in law actually said this once walking thru Boston Public Garden. The area was full of none english speaking tourists, and wouldn't you know"My god, doesn'tanyone around here speak American?" She had no clue why I burst out in laughter.

doc, exactly why I answered the first post the way I did (no slam toward you Cassandra).

While in my 20s and I was waiting tables one summer in Myrtle Beach (my college summer break) I happened to be waiting on a family with a grumpy father. My guess from their accent, they were from somewhere other than the south.

The father turned to me and said, "I can't understand a damn thing you are saying. Would you please speak American?".

Of course since I'm such a smart ass, I laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed.

As you can surmise, they left me $0.00 as a tip.

Being an actor and a student of accents, I enjoy meeting people and after talking for a few minutes saying something like "So how are things in Minnesota". Or "what part of Texas are you from". Or "have you lived in Indiana a long time?" People are often shocked, especially those from the mid west who can't imagine that there is anything to their voice that would give them away. They are all convinced that midwesterners have NO accent.

Of course, expressions people use is another matter and there are some bits of accents I just can't explain. My partner was born and raised not 25 miles from me in Ohio. Yet he always says "I'm going to WARSH my car and the capital is WARSHINGTON D. C." and no one in my family ever says that.

This is not about accents... when I was in New England a man from England (the old one :) asked the cashier if they have any busquits. She said no. As he was on the same bus tour I said: he probably meant cookies. Then turned to him: coming to America gotta learn American.

I can easily understand any pronunciation problems :) Sometimes at work I don't understand over the phone or if the other end doesn't I ask to fax or e-mail a copy of the bill. Works!

I grew up in L.A., New Mexico, and Florida. We said "warsh" also, Patrick. People in Florida noted it when I came here (with laughter) so I know it didn't come from FL. I wonder if it's my Italian and German/French ancestry?

That is so true Patrick. When I lived in Wisconsin for a number of years I had a hard time convincing people that there was such a thing as a Wisconsin accent.

Most think we Bostonians say Pawk yoa cawr in hawrvard yawd. (or a variation on that) It's only in the outer edge of the city. The still existing old neighborhoods. The inner city is very cosmopoltan.

Patrick,

So what happens when you talk with someone who's picked up speech characteristics from different regions? Can you sort them out? I've lived in several places across North America, and more than once I've been asked "Where in the world are you from???" Just once I'd love for someone to say, "I'll bet you've lived in A, B and C!"

Oh, Jocelyn, can I relate! For some reason I seem to be vulnerable to environmental linguistic influences. Born in coal country, somehow I picked up the habit of saying "y'all" in place of "youse" or "youse guys" (sound familiar, Patrick?) during my adolescence, then having lived in several US cities, studied several other languages, plus having a partner whose native language is not English but who also speaks several languages, I fear that my accent is pretty much a pastiche.

Go Travel: I don't have a PHD in linguistics but I think an interesting argument can be made that American and English are distinct-thus, two languages. For example:

The aforementioned Cookie=biscuit. Also
truck=lorrie; gasoline = petrol; wc = bathroom; different spellings of the same word (color/colour), ad infinitum. There is also the case of the same word having different meanings. For instance, facility has a general use in this country as a noun, identifying a building or other structure or possibly a combination of such. An English girlfriend of mine several years ago went hysterical laughing when we drove by a sign identifying the San Diego Fire Deparment Training Facility. She told me that in Europe, facility is only used to identify a bathroom (wc) and was amazed that people who had reached the age to be firemen (yes, only men then) still needed training.

As you said, vedy interesting! I'm reminded of Churchill's famous quote: "We are two peoples separated by a common language".

Jocelyn--I get the same comments, lol! Guess it was all that moving around with the military and we picked up bits and pieces along the way. One place I worked, they all had bets as to where "home" was for me...and every person was wrong, lol!

Driving and listening to the car radio, I heard MacNeil discussing it on the Lehrer Newshour and think it will be very interesting.

One man said: "Innuendo - I see a bird innuendo (in your window)".

Going to be an interesting show! :)

Jocelyn, I didn't say I always get it. I'm wrong a lot, often because of people having moved a lot. But sometimes I get funny reactions too. Like "isn't that funny? I've NEVER lived in Indiana but both my parents came from there."
And I can't tell you how many times I've said "so what part of Australia are you from?" to have someone reply, "No I'm from west Yorkshire" or similar.

Excellent show...they played all three programs back to back here last nite....three hours worth. One of the conclusions that some of the linguists came to was that instead of the US becoming more homogenous, it was becoming less so. Regional accents were increasing, not decreasing. They pointed out 2 examples, one around the Great Lakes region ("block" being pronounced as "black") and parts of California, where the lilt at the end of a sentence (think Valley Girl) was being used by mainstream newscasters, which (to the experts) made it more than just a passing fad. Two quotes: one, the old one about England and the US being two countries separated by a common language, and the comment by a former Texas politician via Molly Ivans, that "his jeans were so tight, if he farted he would blow his boots off."

It was an interesting show - I do wish they did a little further digging into how different dialects evolved, however.
When I was a teen, I worked at a shop in a resort area on the Jersey Shore. After a while, I was able to tell a Newark accent from a Jersey City accent from a Trenton accent.
When we moved to New Hampshire, the New England accent was very noticeable.Shortly after we moved here, my wife ordered a tarp from the local hardware store. A few days later she got a call from the store clerk informing her that the 'top' had come in. It took a little sorting out for her to figure out what he was talking about!

Patrick, your post re: "warsh" made me laugh. I NEVER realized my family and friends had an accent until I moved to Texas. Would you like some "wooter" to "warsh" that car with? ;)

Great show last night! :-)

Funny....just this morning I was on the phone making a dental appt and the receptionist could NOT understand the name of my insurance company because of my accent--I think it was the weird Southern California vowels. ;)

So Jocelyn? How did? You pronounce? The name of your insurance company? Like? I mean? How?

Very funny, GT, very funny!!! :-D

lol GoT! Gosh, I hope I'm not that bad! She was hearing PLICO (ply-koh) as play-kay-oh.

I can be having the most eloquent conversation verbal or written and still will bust out with "ya'll"....I even write it that way in letters, sorry, I know, I know....:-]....

You mean she was stoned or what????

I assume you know that the FIRST rule of "American" (these days) is that you have toinclude the phrase "you know" in at least every other sentence, preferably at the end with a questioning tone of voice, and the SECOND rule is you can substitute "Yah know what I'm sayin?" for "you know."

After I spend too much time in NYC, this very southern girl finds herself inserting, "notfuhnuttin'" into sentences along with y'all.

I'm so upset I missed that program. Everyone I work with and meet is so stunned to find out I from N.C. - they always say "But you don't sound like you're from NC" or "But you don't have an accent" - like they expect all Southerners to sound very Southern. Like a bad Hollywood accent.

Oh, and telemarketers are the best about knowing where you're from. They talk to so many people that they usually are pretty good, but I've had more than one tell me I sound like I'm from Ohio or something.

Being in Northern VA, I notice a lot less of an accent in people who are from this area - it sounds like clean English, not from the South, MidWest, Northeast, Boston, NY, or California. Though I'm sure it sounds like an accent to others' ears.

I also enjoy the "soda/pop/Coke/drink" regional differences.

I'm picturing the country comedian Jeff Foxworthy furiously taking ideas from this post for his next tour,lol.

The one thing I can't understand about American is that "your welcome" has disappeared. I know I'm speaking to a Merican when I say Thank You , and the response is Uhuh. 2 questions ...where did that come from?, and does anyone other than I think that it is somewhat rude and lazy response?

You forgot tonic, which is what we refer it to as here in Boston. Then, of course there is the Package store, or "packy", which is where we buy our beer. The "bubbla" is our drinking fountain.

The Boston accent has got to be the most unique.

Has anyone heard a Southern New Jersey accent? My relatives say New Joysey and "widda" instead of water.

In my small hometown in southwestern PA a lot of people say "younz", it sounds terrible:)

When my husband met me he said I had a terrible Northeast accent (who me?) but says I have lost it over the years.

A lot of people from Philadelphia also phrase statements as questions. I miss it, honestly.

Al, Seinfeld did an episode on that. Turns out there are hundreds of synonyms for "your welcome". We could actually have a long running thread on them all.

Don't mention it.

You're Welcome.

You are Welcome.

I don't think it's Your Welcome.

Thank you for correcting "My American",GoTravel.
I read "your Welcome" and just responded as so.

Travelinwifey--yes, I have!!! One of my best friends from high school now lives in southern New Jersey--Exit 5 ;) When I saw her this past summer it was like talking with an alien--her face was the same but the sounds coming from her mouth were foreign! :-)

GT, you are too funny! :-D

I am really sorry I missed that show. I'll have to see if it's repeated here in the SF area (where we have NO accent whatsoever).

The most common reply I hear to "Thank you" is "No problem!" It seems to have replaced "You're welcome." While it bothers many people, the meaning is the same, i.e., "It was a pleasure, not an inconvenience, to do that for you."

Maybe your dorter will help you warsh that car.

Marilyn, you're kidding, right? You wouldn't say ANYONE has "no accent whatsoever" if you'd seen the show. We all have accents -- it's just a matter of assumptions about which accent is the "standard," but in "American" what's standard isn't always agreed on.

And yes, indeed, Californians have accents -- has to do with quality of some vowels, the "r", and mainly intonation -- statements end on an up-tone, as if a question.

"We went to the store? And we couldn't find anything we liked? So we left? I mean."

Otherwise, a lot of people think "Hollywood" English/American is standard because we hear so much of it in the media.

Of course, no people actually do speak exactly the same, so in some ways we all have individual accents that are a mix of localisms, imitation of media, left-over pronunciations from youth, and so forth.

Hope you get to see the show, anyway. It was very interesting -- hope they rerun it.

BTW, Zootsi, you might want to find "The Story of English" tapes at a library or via Wireless or some such, because in it they covered where a lot of the American accents came from.

I am only sort of kidding, soccr. That "up" inflection is not heard in northern CA from anyone over the age of 25, and I do think many westerners have less identifiable accents than midwest, New England, NY, and the south (not to mention TX).

I grew up in the midwest, but never picked up the accent because my family was from the east. Learned to spot various regional accents in the course of many trade shows all over the US. At one time I could clearly hear the difference in various southern accents -- MS vs SC, for example. I'm afraid I've lost that ability from lack of practice.

"No problem" has always bothered me, especially when someone in a service industry/position says it. When a waiter, for instance, takes my order and goes off saying "no problem," I always have the nasty impulse to say, "you'd better NOT have a problem, and even if you do, you need to do it because it's your job."

I don't say that, but I do think there's a difference between "no problem" and "you're welcome." Saying "you're welcome" IS welcoming, says the person is glad to help you. "No problem" is an expression about whether the person has to put himself/herself out for you, which kind of implies that you MIGHT have been a problem for them, and that it's only because you haven't caused a problem for them that they're willing to do this thing.

I don't like the "mah pleezhur" ("my pleasure") I've begun to hear around here all that much, either, because it's silly to think that it's a switchboard operator's own thrill and joy to transfer a call. But at least it implies "it's a pleasure to serve you", which is still better and more hospitable than "you're no problem for me."

What's wrong with "you're welcome"?