Chicago Accents (Cuba, Augusta: races, top, Irish)

[chicagocubs]

I think a lot has to do with an individual's "ear". Some people have the language "ear" and others do not. I met a guy on Sat who was speaking English to me with absolutely no accent...and, he is a recent immigrant to this country from Norway. Yet, my grandmother, who lived in this country from the time that she was 14, had a thick accent and, sometimes you could not even understand her.

I have lived in Charlotte since 1989, yet, people say that they can still hear the "Chicagoan" accent in my speech. Yet, when I come home, people here say that I sound southern...however, I have the language "ear". I tend to copy the accent of whomever I am around. So, if I am around a bunch of NY transplants, you would think that I was from Brooklyn. And, on & on. It just depends upon the person.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

No doubt speech is an indication of social class (though not of character). Working and upper class people generally have the most natural and unaffected speech while the often socially anxious middle class seeks to blend in and talk the way they imagine the upper class does, often with ironic and hilarious results.

Thus the boilermaker says "let's stop for a drink". The middle class guy says "let's stop for cocktails" and the old money guy says "let's stop for a drink". Paul Fussel is good on this subject.

By the way, the term "saasage" is often used when speaking of Italian and Polish sausage by a person who says "sawsage" when referring to breakfast sausage.

Tom is fighting the bourgeois once again... You are a class warfare artist.

[aragx6]

chicagocubs, I am the same way. I picked up a drawl after three weeks in Atlanta, my friends in St. Louis all tease me over my new Chicago accent -- hell I sounded British after watching the 6 hour Pride and Prejudice mini-series.

[Carantini]

aragyx and chicagocubs, you might be the anxious trying to blend in middle class people irish toms talking about.

[j33]

Heh, so what does that say about me, who grew up in Chicago, yet still sometimes channels my family from Boston when I'm tired or stressed (yes, I've been called on my somewhat tenuous relationship with the letter 'r' more than once). I wonder what sort of class based assumptions can be made there .

... on a side note, those who are talking about the relationship between accent (any accent) and class have been historically dead-on, there have always been relationships between accent and class throughout the history of language, that is just how it is whether it be English, German, or Chinese.

[Carantini]

chicagoans have difficulty with the "r" also.

[Avengerfire]

^What?^

[Carantini]

our "r". its different than average

[Avengerfire]

^Example?^

[Carantini]

i cant explain it...like a pirate or sometimes missing too or real light,