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"?