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>