Do you consider Ohio "Midwest" or "Back East?" (Columbus: eat, corporate)

[Cincy-Rise]

A lot of architectural characteristics that I referred to upthread are in this juicy gritty thread. I love it!

Recession 09: Cincinnati

This was also posted on an international forum. It's interesting reading comments from people from all over the world.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=165475

[Orwelleaut]

Originally Posted by MaryBeth2

I was born and raised in Ohio, and lived the past 20 years here, in the south. When I talk to back homers, they say I have a southern accent, but down here, I get told I have the New York accent. It always amazes me. I wasn't from NY, I lived in Wintersville. Yay Wintersville!

I think the johnny rebs are mistaking a little bit of a Pittsburgh sound for NY. To me, Pittsburgh and NYC sound like night and day, nothing alike. I've heard Southerners make the observation, though, that all of PA and the part of Ohio near PA sound like we have a "Joisey" accent. Just what they hear, I can't imagine. Maybe all Northerners sound New Yorkish to some Southern natives.

[Orwelleaut]

Originally Posted by Samir_Abdul

ya'll ever heard some one from youngstowns accent..they have a sound of their own....

Very true. You have a unique mixture of Pittsburgh and Cleveland sounds and pronunciations. One hears the "ee-ack" sounds of Cleveland in words like black and blast alongside Western PA staples like "up 'ere", ending phrases in 'ere, and the "w" sound in words like box and top: "bwax" and "twap". Youngstown/Warren sounds kind of like this: "I ree-an inta some blee-ack ice up 'ere on 11. Yeeah, it's pretty slick aht there. Stay off the roads if ya kee-an". A Pittsburgher hears a Cleveland accent here, and a Clevelander hears Pittsburghese.

[Orwelleaut]

Originally Posted by CortlandGirl79

Not everyone in Youngstown has an accent.........the ones that do sound like they are from Appalachia or western Pa.

Unless the listener is from Pittsburgh, in which case they will probably notice a little bit of the Cleveland "eeaccent". The Mahoning Valley tends to have a blend of the Pittsburgh and Cleveland accents. Go over Sharon or New Castle, and the Cleveland sound has faded. Head up to Ashtabula, or, as die-hard natives say, "Eeeash-ah-bewla", and the sound is all Cleveland. Listen to Mark Allen in the morning on 97.1 FM, switch over to 98.9 for a while, and, finally, sample a little 99.7 FM or, if you can tune it in, 102.5 WDVE in Pittsburgh, and you will hear the comparison.

[CortlandGirl79]

Well, i can't say i've ever heard a Cleveland accent here in Warren or the surrounding area............trust me i know when i hear a Cleveland accent, it makes me cringe! I went to school w/a girl from Lake Co. and dear god.........finger nails on a chalk board when she talked. She used to call me Keethy instead of Kathy and said maam instead of mom. There is also a girl who does the weather in Y-town (channel 21) that has the Cleveland accent and i can't stand to listen to her!

I have heard the western pa thing south of Youngstown especially in Columbiana County. The only accent i've ever noticed here is that we replace "th" with a "da" sound (which is a Pa thing). I also say "up 'ere" and often hear people end sentences w/a proposition. "Where ya at??" Some things that i don't say are "tager"(tiger), "worsh"(wash), "kellar"(color), "arn"(iron), etc. I pronounce iron, "i-urn".

I think the MV is kind of a strange area when it comes to accents. Many black people here have a southern accent because many of them are from Alabama, etc. Then you have the former West Virginians and Pennsyltuckians that live here that somewhat have an accent. Then there are the people who have lived here for years that mostly do the "th" thing. I took a sociology class at YSU several years ago and the prof said that most people in the valley only have an accent on "th"'s and otherwise we have the mainstream american accent or tv english i guess you would call it.

[CortlandGirl79]

This is an example of how i sound........the Warren accent http://web.ku.edu/idea/northamerica/usa/ohio/ohio4.mp3

Greater Cleveland: http://web.ku.edu/idea/northamerica/usa/ohio/ohio1.mp3 and http://web.ku.edu/idea/northamerica/usa/ohio/ohio2.mp3

Here's how people south of Y-town sound: PITTSBURGHESE .com

[1watertiger]

i totally dis-agree with some of the previous posts.. no one from c-bus,cinci or central/southern ohio talks anything like a clevelander.. to us the rest of ohio sounds "country-ish" "southern" or whatever , but its very different... but chicago,detroit,cleveland all sound the same.

[VideoEngineerAJS]

I went to that site and they didn't pick the right person for Boston because in the dialog at the end she even admits that whenever she talks to someone that she doesn't know or when she talks with someone of authority she tries to pronounce her rs. I was in the Boston area for over a year and you could tell that she was from Boston, but her accent wasn't nearly as apparent as most of the people in Boston.

If Northeastern Ohioans really want to be like New Englanders, stop pronouncing your rs. Say "caa" instead of car.

[MaryBeth2]

All I know is I can pick out a real Ohioan by the way they say Ohio. It's Ohia. Know what I mean?

[MaryBeth2]

Originally Posted by Orwelleaut

I think the johnny rebs are mistaking a little bit of a Pittsburgh sound for NY. To me, Pittsburgh and NYC sound like night and day, nothing alike. I've heard Southerners make the observation, though, that all of PA and the part of Ohio near PA sound like we have a "Joisey" accent. Just what they hear, I can't imagine. Maybe all Northerners sound New Yorkish to some Southern natives.

Good point. That could be it in a nutshell. We all sound alike to them.