Colorado Accent (Fort Collins: transplants, attorneys, home)

[formercalifornian]

Originally Posted by Zel Ya

Yeah, I've heard that. Those folks were born and raised in MIZZERA.

"Touring middle America, the British traveler Jonathon Raban came upon the girl Sally who informed him, 'New Money says Missouri; Old Money says Missoura.' "

-- Fussell, Paul. Class: A Guide through the American Status System. New York: Touchstone, 1983.

[SortaMobile]

As a midwesterner, I'd always assumed it was col o RAD o with accented syllable with short "a" sound rhyming with 'ad." I've noticed a split between the former pronunciation and the alternate col o RAHD o. (disclaimer: split btwn the 3rd and 4th syllables may be btwn the "a" and the "d", not "d" and "o", but it illustrates the vowel shift issue better, so I'm leaving it.)

Consulted an on-line pronunciation guide, English Pronouncing Dictionary with Instant Sound Free Online Here's how it pronounces ""Colorado." Now, I submit that the more pretentious have adopted a vowel shift to "ah" or close to the short "o" sound on the third syllable. That would make it rhyme with the third syllable of this word[/url], which at howjsay.com is only 8 words above "Colorado.." For those in this latter group, I'm guessing the good doctor must have left something behind after the exam...

So, some guidance is needed here. Am I off-base with this assessment? Also, apologies, I originally posted this on the forums at am760.net, which entitles me to rip it off an post here.

[treedonkey]

Some of our friends here in CO have what sounds to me like a little bit of a midwestern accent (Illinois-ish). Of course, they think I have a definite CA accent. I dunno, I think I was just tired that day.

interesting thread, anyways

[hivoltage]

Colorado Accents are similar to southern accents. This I know I grew up in Colorado lived a couple years in the north east.Lived last 18 years in deep south.However depending on where you are from in CO depends on how you speak(In my opinion).I had a teacher from Paonia She was as country talking as any Mississippi woman I ever met.My Grandma get her mad and she was fixin to ring your neck(She did not like us arguin amongst ourselves) She had a real problem with with me puttin my shirt on Bass ackwards and hind sight before. Well thats what I know about Colorado accents.

[ottodog]

As a native, I'd have to say it should be pronounced color AD o. IMHO

[McGowdog]

Originally Posted by dynimagelv

I NEVER said Pee-eb-low.....I always said PEW-EB-LOW

Pleblo. Wal*Marts. Safeways. K-Marts.

"Next time you walk through my yard, go around."

"Pass me down the stairs my keys."

[dynimagelv]

Originally Posted by McGowdog

Pleblo. Wal*Marts. Safeways. K-Marts.

"Next time you walk through my yard, go around."

"Pass me down the stairs my keys."

and there is an "R" in Warsh

[Katiana]

I know a guy who says he is from Byu-na Vista.

[Kalinka]

Well, everyone has accents. Just had to point that out.

Colorado (parts of it anyway) does have a Southern influence in it. Big time. I mostly lived near Pueblo when I lived in Colorado, but my entire family is from the mountains, including my Mother. My Mother isn't quite as bad because she moved east when she was older, but she still says "warsh" and has certain speech differences than I do. My Grandfather sounds like he's from the South as well as his sister and they are both born and raised and haven't lived anywhere else but throughout the Colorado Rockies. I do not talk to them often and funnily enough I only talked to my Great Aunt this past summer for the first time in a really long time and after I got off the phone I asked my Mom "What is up with her? Did she live in the South?" and my Mom just told me that is a "mountain accent".

Denver is more influenced by outsiders and the smaller mountain towns tend to be more "organic" in their speech, if you could put it that way.

[20yrsinBranson]

Originally Posted by englewoodmum

Is there such thing?
I'm from Colorado, I swear people have some kind of regional accent.
I grew up in the south, so maybe it's just me, but I have met lots of Coloradans with Southern accents. I wanna know, do y'all think there's a distinct, dialect forming or that has formed among coloradans?

While living there the only accent that I was able to distinguish was that stupid "wannabe valley girl" put on type affectation so as to try to make people think you are something special. You find it amongst a lot of the "well to do" kids these days (everywhere, not just Colorado), the ones that drive their daddy's BMWs and such.

It sounds "so totally phoney" y'know? <--- attempted imitation of annoying accent.

20yrsinBranson