The Power of the Kilt

[Kiltman]

Great story. Do they really have accents in Ohio!?

[sathor]

Great story. Do they really have accents in Ohio!?

Only if you are from somewhere else. Then again, there is a Cincinnati and a Dayton and a Cleavland accent, each a bit different, but really close.

[denmcdough]

My wife gets that all the time. Everyone thinks she's from Germany, but is really from western PA. One fellow came up to her at a concert intermission and started talking in German, and my wife looked at him and said, "I only speak English." Needless to say, he was embarrassed.

Another story: a friend was out west skiing and was talking to a gentleman that had an accent. She asked if his accent was German, and he stated, "no, I have a speech impediment." How embarrassing is that?

[Smayniac]

Great story. Do they really have accents in Ohio!?

I'll be seeing my linguist cousin who teaches at Ohio State tomorrow, I'll have to ask...

[rocscotjoe]

Great story. Do they really have accents in Ohio!?

I remember reading somewhere years ago that the Ohio accent is the "American" accent people want for newscasters and the like. Apparently Ohio (or Ahia, where I am from in W. Pa.) has the quintessential American sound. one of those kind of sad things when everyone sounds the same and regional accents get lost. BTW, even though I am a "yinzer" by birth, I have worked hard to lose the sound...

[piperdbh]

I remember reading somewhere years ago that the Ohio accent is the "American" accent people want for newscasters and the like.

I must say that I'm not one of those people. I'd rather have a newscaster who sounds like me and can pronounce local place names correctly.

Back to the chili: Isn't Skyline the place where you order your chili "one-way, two-way, three-way" and so forth, depending on what you want on top of it? And they serve your chili over spaghetti noodles?

[Lyle1]

I remember reading somewhere years ago that the Ohio accent is the "American" accent people want for newscasters and the like. Apparently Ohio (or Ahia, where I am from in W. Pa.) has the quintessential American sound. one of those kind of sad things when everyone sounds the same and regional accents get lost. BTW, even though I am a "yinzer" by birth, I have worked hard to lose the sound...

Parts of Ohio have a very non quintessential American sound that is very distinctive. For example, the words "roof" and "root" are pronounced with the same "o" sound as the word "wolf."

I am also from W. Pa. which is considered the smallest dialectical region in the US. Lots of remnants of the Scottish accents of early settlers.
I worked hard to lose that accent, with some success. The bad news is that I am slipping back into it as I get older.

[Pleater]

When I get het up, or drunk - I lose about 300 years and start to sound like the King James version of the bible - on a really bad day.

The grandmother we lived with up until I was about 7 years old was brought up way out in the country and as I used to sit with her a lot - my mum had my two younger siblings to look after and grandma was an invalid due to her ill health, so older forms of speach were what I though of as normal.

I 'get' the jokes in Shakespeare's plays - that is really unnerving for Eng Lit teachers teaching 11year olds.

I can read Chaucer in the original fairly easily - I only have problems when they write it down in a funny way - funnier way than usual, that is.

The o in wolf IS the same as in roof and root - sort of 'ou' sound - isn't it?

Any pressure to lose dialect and accent and become non regional is rather sad and silly, I think - though not as sad and silly as those people who say that they can't understand what is being said to them. They always understand fast enough if you say something rude in return.

I love the lingo the little blue men in Terry Pratchett's Disc World books use - I have the feeling I might get on with them rather well.....

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[NewGuise]

I 'get' the jokes in Shakespeare's plays - that is really unnerving for Eng Lit teachers teaching 11year olds.

I can read Chaucer in the original fairly easily - I only have problems when they write it down in a funny way - funnier way than usual, that is.

I grew up mostly in Saskatchewan, Canada, with parents who spoke Low German to each other (not to the kids), and I understood the jokes in Shakespeare. I played Bottom (in A Midsummer Night's Dream) at age 10 - smallest kid in the cast, with the biggest voice. And I grew up to become a medievalist specializing in early English theatre. But I've always been more comfortable with Yorkshire dialect than with Chaucer's. Explain that to me, please...

[Tetley]

...
I love the lingo the little blue men in Terry Pratchett's Disc World books use - I have the feeling I might get on with them rather well.....

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

Crivens! Oh waley, waley, waley, not "the accent"!