Rare Dialects
RonButters at AOL.COM
RonButters at AOL.COM
Mon Feb 23 23:42:21 UTC 2009
Your speech may have been slurred from all the drinking, but not because you
were from Mississippi.
In a message dated 2/23/09 5:37:20 PM, gww at OLEMISS.EDU writes:
> Wilson, you mentioned language in the Bronx. With
> your interest in BE, you may find this of
> interest. I was once staying at a motel in the
> Bronx. Some friends and I had had too much to
> drink already but wanted to have a nightcap at my
> motel room. I didn't have enough glasses for all.
> We stopped at a diner as we walked to the motel,
> and I asked the waitress, in my slurred
> Mississippi speech, "What'll you take for a paper
> cup?" She had no idea what I said, and I repeated
> it several times. She never understood, but an
> African American cook in the back was listening
> and laughing. She explained: "Da man wants to buy a paper cup."
> Gerald
>
> At 03:42 PM 2/23/2009, you wrote:
> >---------------------- Information from the mail
> >header -----------------------
> >Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> >Subject: Re: Rare Dialects
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >A funny thing is that when *you* are the one who isn't understood, as
> >was the case with me when I first went to Los Angeles, it's impossible
> >to tell what it is about your speech that makes it hard to understand.
> >
> >Once, a guy that I was giving a lift to asked me whether I noticed
> >anything strange about the way that he talked.
> >
> >Yes. You sound like a West Indian.
> >
> >Mon, I don't understand! Everybody tells me that. But I talk the same
> >as everybody else!
> >
> >Not hardly, as we say in the 'hood. Based on my own earlier experience
> >of having people in Los Angeles continually ask me what it was that I
> >had said, however, the poor guy had my complete sympathy. You do feel,
> >in such cases, that there's absolutely nothing about your idiolect
> >that's in any way so distinct from the local dialect that people
> >simply have no idea what you're saying or think that you're some kind
> >of foreigner, especially when you understand them perfectly, because
> >to your ear, you and they are speaking exactly the same dialect. But,
> >nevertheless, they react as though you were speaking some foreign
> >tongue that they've never heard before.
> >
> >-Wilson
> >
> >-Wilson
> >–––
> >All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> >come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> >-----
> >-Mark Twain
> >
> >
> >
> >On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 12:04 PM, Laurence Horn
> ><laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> > > ---------------------- Information from the
> > mail header -----------------------
> > > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > > Subject: Re: Rare Dialects
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > At 11:46 AM -0500 2/23/09, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > >>Many of us remember the best episode of the otherwise blah "Story of
> > >>English" on PBS many years ago.
> > >
> > > OT query: I still use SoE in class for the
> > > "Mother Tongue" hour ("Program 2"), in which
> > > McNeil depicts the early history from the Angles
> > > and Saxons through the Viking invasions (with the
> > > conversation in the Danelaw between a Saxon and a
> > > Viking about the selling of a horse, or hros as
> > > the case may be) and the Norman invasion, to
> > > Chaucer and Caxton and the beginning of the vowel
> > > shift. I find it useful, if somewhat dated (to
> > > judge from the increase in student giggles over
> > > the years at certain parts). Is there a good
> > > substitute? (The pronunciations of Old and
> > > Middle English texts and mock conversations along
> > > the way, and a fragment of the colorful
> > > performance of "Mankind" (that's [man'kInd], not
> > > [maen'kaind]) strike me as particularly helpful
> > > for illustrating the effect of the changes the
> > > language has undergone.)
> > >
> > > LH
> > >
> > >>The old Chesapeake dialect sounded
> > >>relatively unintelligible to me, though I
> > assume it would not be too hard to
> > >>get used to after a day or so.
> > >>
> > >>The Gullah dialect may be/ have been the least intelligible to
> outsiders.
> > >>Inner-city and deep-south "basilects" are pretty hard for outsiders too.
> > >>
> > >>Of course we're only talking about English in the U.S.
> > >>
> > >>JL
> > >>On Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 11:27 PM, Tom
> > Zurinskas <truespel at hotmail.com>wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > >>> -----------------------
> > >>> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > >>> Poster: Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
> > >>> Subject: Re: Rare Dialects
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>---------------------------------------------
> > ----------------------------------
> > >>>
> > >>> Unitelligible dialects? absolutely. I attended a talent show at a
> local
> > >>> college with my parents and wife. The MC
> > was a black man and much of the
> > >>> audience was black. He must have been funny because they were having
> a
> > >>> ball. Meanwhile we kept looking at each
> > other wondering what he was saying.
> > >>> I will never forget it.
> > >>>
> > >>> It happened in England as well. I had to avoid this fellow member of
> a
> > >>> society I belong to because I couldn't understand a word he was
> saying.
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
> > >>> see truespel.com
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> ----------------------------------------
> > >>> > Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 08:11:41 -0500
> > >>> > From: djmetevia at CHARTERMI.NET
> > >>> > Subject: Rare Dialects
> > >>> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > >>> >
> > >>> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > >>> -----------------------
> > >>> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > >>> > Poster: David Metevia
> > >>> > Subject: Rare Dialects
> > >>> >
> > >>>
> > >>>---------------------------------------------
> > ----------------------------------
> > >>> >
> > >>> > An interesting article in the LA Times yesterday:
> > >>> >
> > >>> >
> > http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-interpret21-2009feb21,0,5139254.story
> > >>> >
> > >>> > This man could communicate easily in his home town and even
> somewhat
> > >>> > outside of that as he knows some Spanish. However, it is a big
> culture
> > >>> > shock to be in California.
> > >>> >
> > >>> > Are there examples in the US of AmE dialects so isolated from the
> > >>> > mainstream that most of us would have difficulty communicating?
> > >>> >
> > >>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > >>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >>> _________________________________________________________________
> > >>> Windows Live Hotmail(R) more than just e-mail.
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>http://windowslive.com/howitworks?ocid=TXT_TA
> > GLM_WL_t2_hm_justgotbetter_howitworks_022009
> > >>>
> > >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> > >>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >>>
> > >>
> > >>------------------------------------------------------------
> > >>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > >
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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