Great thread! The newest one I hear ALOT (used by young Florida urban blacks mostly):

Arright! (Hello)
Arright! (thank you)
Arright! (you're welcome)
Arright! (Bye Bye)

I have honestly seen one person use all four ways in one conversation.

Glad you weren't entirely serious, Marilyn, but you still miss the point somewhat -- there's no such thing as "no accent," and if you talk about someone not having an identifiable accent, you're either saying they speak the way you do or that they lack some regional peculiarities that are particularly noticeable to you.

In your case, and in mine too I suspect, the "American" English we speak is a conglomeration of national-media-determined and de-regionalized language such that it would be a challenge to a linguist to find the one or two things we still say that would locate us most readily in one place or another. But that doesn't mean what we speak is either fully standardized or without an accent. I still use New England terms for certain foods, and I have picked up some Southernisms that I find useful or fun.

Anyway, go to that website for the show and play with some of the "quizzes" and games -- you'll begin to realize how subtle some things are.

Start with these: how do you pronounce the following sets of words?

butter budder
marry Mary merry
bury berry Barry

If you say each word differently from its "cousins," is that standard? If you don't, is that standard?

Those are great quizzes on that link you provided, Cassandra. Fun!

Cassandra....When I was a waitron, I made 3 maybe 4 times the tips of the other guys...My vocabulary was "alien" as one of them confided in me once:
"Certainly!" "Of course!" "With Pleasure!" Now what grates me these days is when I call a hotel and ask for the concierge or reservations or whatevere: "It's my pelasure to connect you"...yeah, right..

Maryiln, and anyone else who may be interested in this show but missed it--check out the following link. The show is being re-broadcast in San Antonio so perhaps it will where you are as well :-)

http://www.pbs.org/speak/airdates/

As I recall, the talking heads are still refining their speach in Nebraska, in Winter.
M

Marilyn: I knew you were kidding on everything but the line about getting someone's "dorter" to "warsh" the clothing. Now this last was serious! :_

Check out pbs.org. It'll list the likely pbs stations by zip code and you can choose the one closest to you.

This whole thread reminds me of a book review on C-Span this last weekend, it was on "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves". During one part of the author's discussion on the importance of apostrophes, she mentioned the tremendous difference between the following two phrases:

"Those old things over there are my husbands."

"Those old things over there are my husband's."

Which, although hilarious, left me wondering how one distinguishes between the two when it's spoken and not written.

I watched part of "Do You Speak American?" but fell asleep. When I awoke there was a professor discussing student gaffes, such as "Magellan circumcised the globe". He was hilarious and so completely woke me up I couldn't sleep again the rest of the night! Wish I knew who it was. :)

I was hoping this show would be discussed. I saw it last night and loved it. Of course growing up in Chicago’s south ‘burbs I most certainly heard quite a bit of the local accent (my dad worked for a construction company on the south side, believe me I heard more ‘youse guys’ and blue collar south side accents than I can shake a stick at), I even had to make a bit of an effort to remove some of that from my vocabulary when I got older ;). Although once in awhile it comes out, I got frustrated with a fax machine last week and announced ‘you guyses fax machine sucks’, much to the amusement of my fellow coworkers.

My mother and her family are all from New England and New York City (Bronx), and I think they were a 'bad' influence on me as well based on some comments I've gotten about how I speak, even though my mom has not lived in Boston for 30+ years, she still occasionally has “idears” about her “cah”. In fact I have fond memories of my Great Aunt (which apparently I pronounce funny for a Midwesterner, everyone says ‘ant’ here) calling from Queens asking ‘hello dahlin’ is yer mothah theah? Great show, although I wished they would have poked around the northern midwest and great lakes a bit more, the Labov bit was rather weak.

Cassandra, I agree.

"No Problem" makes me crazy.

To me, it implies that: there is a problem, that person really doesn't want to do/can't do that task, but they'll do it anyway.

Yes, Vittrad is correct, they should get into much more detail/study of the upper Midwest accents. Wisconsin/ Minnesota especially - all a bit different.

In reverse, I do think that in some ways I might regret that I have lost a lot of my Chicago Southside neighborhood speech/cadence. I had not realized it until recently. Some one at a small town meeting in Michigan told me (and proudly/nicely, as if it were a great compliment) that "You can't be from Chicago, because you certainly don't sound like it." Don't know why, but it made me a bit sad.

Heayeah, Vittrad, you wanna go down in the basement and grab a pop?

JJ5 -- well, it would probably help if I actually moved out of Chicago ... ya think?

I gaht your pahp right here bud!

I would have to guess that the "no problem" response is related to the Spanish speakers' "por nada or de nada" which is a humble "you are welcome".
M

I think Mikemo is correct, even though it's been a long time since I've been to Mexico!

Yous guys shoulda grown up on da west side of Buffalo when I did and we coulda had a sangwich together!!!!

Not only did my Grandmother from Mississippi "warsh" the clothes, she then "wrenched" (rinsed) them.

I'll defend the "No Problem" - and I am an educated, respectful, and courteous professional, and I use "No Problem" reflexively. It is not meant with disrespect (although it can be said disrespectfully). When you say "No Problem," you tell the person thanking you that performing whatever task that merited the "thank you" was not an inconvenience to you in the least (i.e., "It was nothing, really") so that they don't need to feel that they imposed on you. While "You're Welcome" is obviously polite, in some situations it can cannote "You're welcome, and you should be, because I certainly went out of my way to help you and I want you to know that." A "No problem" is a "Don't mention it" and a more modern "My pleasure."

So don't take it as an affront or as a signal of the declining courtesy of youth. It conveys the very same meaning as "You're welcome" 99 times out of 100, and it is more modern. It may not be Miss Manners favorite response, but it does not warrant getting one's britches in a bunch.

I agree, kgh. It is not meant in a snotty way, but more as "My pleasure." So why not give people the benefit of the doubt?

I'll weigh in as another person who says 'no problem' frequently and has been told 'no problem' quite often as well, it never even occured to me that this was anything but a casual way of saying 'don't mention it' or 'my pleasure'.

So glad to hear I'm not the only one who dislikes "no problem"!

When I say thank you, I'm not indicating that there was a problem, only appreciation of a service performed. It's a pet peeve of mine!


What is wrong with you're welcome?!?

I have no problem with no problem, what I do have a problem with is uhuh. what the hell is a uhuh? why not say nothing at all if you can't take the time to put two words together. Cheers, Al

Al: =D>

We lived in the Bay Area back in the 70's. I am from the Boston area. A census-taker interviewed me one day, and at the end of the interview asked, "Are you from England?" I replied, "No, I'm from NEW England!"

Like I said to my girlfriend Mahreen Harnedy, such a good girl, ahways says "You're welcome, Mrs. Manna" to my ma, "Whatcha want to go out with one of the publics for?

Don'tcha know she wises up and ends up marrying Joe Rizza. Meets em down on my steps even, so I'm gonna be the one responsible. 40th coming up pretty soon and no Eyetalian beef at the Martinque this time, better for sure. Renewal vows in the old Tommy Moore Church?? I'll be there, Mo.

Actually, Al, unh-huh and uh-uh are African in origin. The Kings English is yes and no. Give the slaves some credit for keeping their own and then actually passing it on to the white folks.

Sure!
M

So says Robert Ferris Thompson.

TG: That's correct! But still, I dislike its use. Geneva Smitherman has written extensively on African American Vernacular English - it's quite an interesting read.

seetheworld, unh-huh! I will check that out.

Make that Robert F-A-rris Thompson.

I see no problem as being more like the "don't mention it" or "no mention" that I was used to in India.

But of late at work there are several people who say "you bet" in response to a thank you!! Never ceases to amaze me.

I actually find the 'you bet' a bit annoying, which I suppose is rather inconsistent of me as I do not find 'no problem' annoying ... ah, the joys of lanaguage.

I often have people change their mind after I have already done what they asked. They usually apologize to me for giving me extra work and my reply is almost always "Not a problem" meant as I am happy to get them whatever they want and it wasn't an inconvience.

A lot of people in service related industries don't make a lot of money but work their butts off. It's not very compassionate to want to rip someone's head off who's helping you just for saying a word you don't like when it wasn't meant offensivly.

lenleigh, Amen to that!

It would be a different world if the roles were reversed and the critical worked your job for just one week.

In CA we have so many immigrants.

Yes I know, some illegal. No comments necessary.

What matters to me is the kindness, the consideration that one shows.

"Your welcome", "it's nothing", "no problem", whatever the response is; if it is given with courtesy and a smile who cares IMHO what the response is.

Lenleigh, no one's ripping your head off for what you say -- and it's perfectly appropriate to say "no problem" when you've gone out of your way about something and it, truth to tell, WAS a bit of a problem for you. My "problem" comes when someone says that after doing something pretty simple and part of what they're paid for -- sometimes it's even without having a "thank you," just a knee jerk. Example, giving an order to a server: "umm, key lime pie and ice tea, please." "No problem!" Huh? If it was going to be a problem, maybe I shouldn't have even asked.

I've put in plenty of time in service jobs, and I know there are times to say, "oh, it was no problem, ma'am" or "a pleasure to help you." but they don't apply to 100% of the situations, and it's almost insulting when the answer is so automatic that you have to wonder if the person even heard you right.

One thing that both my husband and I notice a lot while travelling in the States is that many times when we would say "thank you", the response was "uh huh". What's with that?

I just got off the telephone with an airline without getting satisfactory help. While I tried to be polite and just say "thank you" so i could get on with my day, what do you think the response was? Yes, it was "not a problem"! I quickly hung up so i could scream:D

lol, mms!!!

mms- hehe, I understand, I work with college students and the whole 'like' thing is a bit of a pet peeve of mine, so you can imagine that I've had to learn to cope ;)

After I got the screaming out of my system, I called the airline back. A very nice gentleman helped me and we got our situation resolved. At the end of the conversation I once again said "thank you" (and meant it this time!), and low and behold I actually got a "you're welcome"! lol!

It's interesting to learn that regional accents are increasing. Sadly, though, the accent from *my* region, the Pennsylvania Dutch country, is fading. You hear far fewer "Dutchies" these days (and the accent is NOTHING like the accent used by the actors playing Amish characters in Witness). When I was a kid, almost everyone I knew either spoke with or had somebody in their family who spoke with a Dutchie accent (or could actually speak Pennsylvania Dutch/aka Pennsylvania German). I recently visited a friend who still lives in the area and she said virtually none of the kids have that accent anymore. When my old friends and I get together, we sometimes speak to each other with the old accents just for the fun of it. The kids think we're nuts, of course.

"No problem" definitely raises my hackles.

Or, from (usually) a yonger waitperson: What will youse have?

As another poster mentioned, I was surprised that some of the areas with the richest "accents" and colloquialisms were given such short shrift, including the upper Midwest, NY, Boston and Louisiana.

I think it's one of most interesting facets of this country - to have such richly varied dialects and accents. I sure hope if never changes.