The Power of the Kilt

[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...

[mayberry]

Well, remember that one definition of accent is, "What someone else has."
Each of us just speaks "normally".
Cheers,
John

[GMan]

I love this story.

[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?

[EagleJCS]

Yup, Skyline's the place where you can have a three-way in a family restaurant and not be arrested. (It's tomato-based ground-beef chili on spaghetti with shredded cheese on top). A four-way is a three-way with diced onions or red beans. A 5-way is a 3-way with diced onions and red beans.

I think the Midwestern accent is generally the 'typical' American accent. Linguists may debate exactly what that is, though. There's still some regional flavors to it - I have a knack for discerning accents (kinda like Prof. Henry Higgins) - and I can generally tell Ohio from Illinois from Iowa. It may take a couple of minutes speaking with a person to be able to tell.

I can sometimes even pick out two or three accents from a person's pattern of speech. It depends partly on where their parents were raised, where they went to school, and where they've lived the majority of their life. All of that comes through in certain vowel sounds, how clipped their words are, and how they pronouce some things. For example, I have a friend who was born in Cincinnati but moved here (to Louisville, KY) when she was 12. She still has a slight 'Cincy' accent on some words even though she's now in her 40's.

[piperdbh]

I have a knack for discerning accents (kinda like Prof. Henry Higgins) - and I can generally tell Ohio from Illinois from Iowa. It may take a couple of minutes speaking with a person to be able to tell.

I can sometimes even pick out two or three accents from a person's pattern of speech. It depends partly on where their parents were raised, where they went to school, and where they've lived the majority of their life. All of that comes through in certain vowel sounds, how clipped their words are, and how they pronouce some things.

Me, too, and my wife can't hear the differences at all. I'm a high school chorus teacher, so I guess that makes me a professional listener.

[fluter]

I think the Midwestern accent is generally the 'typical' American accent. Linguists may debate exactly what that is, though. There's still some regional flavors to it -

It used to be said that Nebraska had the "neutral" TV-announcer accent. I've probably lost my ear for some Midwestern distinctions, not having lived there for 34 years now. But choral singing will make you learn to listen.

Then again, hours of fun may be had by attempting to get our Ohio-raised choirmaster---or any Midwesterner north of, say, latitude 40---to say a Southern (diphthong-less) "I" vowel.

[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?

[ForresterModern]

Don't forget about skyline's cheese coneys. After a night of college drinking at UC the only place open after 2 am was Skyline at Ludlow, packed to the gills. our post drunk standard was either a 2 by 4 (2 cheese coneys and a 4 way) or a 5 by 3 (5 way with 3 cheese coneys with onions). Best cure to keep from getting a hangover, or at least to keep from worrying about it.

I was born in WV from hillbilly parents, educated but still with the accent. Moved to northern Ohio outside Cleveland when I was less than ayear old. My dad lost his accent pretty quickly, because as a teacher he was the butt of many hillbilly jokes by his students if he hadn't. My mother never lost all of hers. We spent summers in WV as kids so I picked up a bit of the accent while there which would go away when I got home. Moved to Cincinnati for college (14 years there---I was a slow learner) and became acutely aware of both the Cincinnati and Cleveland accents there. My college buddies noticed that my WV accent came back however, when I got drunk. which was great fun for them. Now that my parents moved back to WV 13 years ago their accents are starting to come out again, as is mine since I move to Louisville last year.

It is true, every newscaster wants the Mary Tyler Moore Ohio accent, although some of the best have had a lightly British "Canadian" eastern accent---Peter Jennings for example.