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Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,666,340 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by anifani821
No, I knew you are like me about correcting anyone (unless they ask, of course! And that is what this thread is about! lol)
I hope folks understand what we have been trying to convey: multiple pronunciations, even w/in one region here in NC. We truly were a melting pot back in the 18th C.
Thanks, Ani!
LOL, I thought for sure that, after posting that some of the original settlers in Concord were of English & Welsh descent (it was in the link), that posting that Phineas Mendenhall, who was of English & Welsh descent, pronounced his own name in such a way that it was consistently written Finis, it would show that you can only go with modern accents, & God-forbid spelling, up to a point.
I've studied some of the western theater battles of the Civil War in depth, because of multiple family members being in them. I don't remember where I read it, it might have been in his memoir, but James Longstreet wrote of his arrival in GA for the battle of Chickamauga. He nearly got himself captured. He heard some soldiers talking, & it was dark. He thought that they were Confederates & asked who their commanding officer was. He didn't recognize the name, but didn't think much of it, as he was not familiar with the Army of Tennessee, but did ask which regiment the soldier was with. Oops! It was a midwestern Union regiment. I forget how he talked himself out of that.
I also know that accents change over time. One set of my great grandparents were younger than the rest & were alive when I was a kid. That great grandmother pronounced the "h" in vehicle. My father (who died 2 years ago, at the age of 90) used to tell of a couple of the old people, when he was a kid, who called Vienna sausages Vie enna sausages. (neither syllable seemed to have an accent)
Newark NJ is pronounced New-erk in North Jersey and NYC area, but I know many people from south and western NJ that pronouce it more like "Nork".
One of the things that first jumped out at me when I moved down here is how people pronounce the word "sale". It comes out more like "sell". It's "on sell". Not "on sayle". But then a word like "bell' is pronouced like it rhymes with "sale".
I am constantly teased by my southern friends for how I pronounce the word "ruin" as a one syllable word. It's two syllables down here! Roo-in.
Newark is pronounced as Nerk in Ohio just as Ohio is pronounced as O-hi. All good stuff.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,666,340 times
Reputation: 10256
Quote:
Originally Posted by chuckles34
Newark NJ is pronounced New-erk in North Jersey and NYC area, but I know many people from south and western NJ that pronouce it more like "Nork".
One of the things that first jumped out at me when I moved down here is how people pronounce the word "sale". It comes out more like "sell". It's "on sell". Not "on sayle". But then a word like "bell' is pronouced like it rhymes with "sale".
I am constantly teased by my southern friends for how I pronounce the word "ruin" as a one syllable word. It's two syllables down here! Roo-in.
Depends on your definition of South Jersey. In South Jersey, South Jersey only consists of the counties who attempted to secede from the state to form a separate state, circa 1980. Most of it has one accent (extremely similar to one of the Philadelphia accents. Gloucester City has it's own, & there is a distinctly southern accent in Deep South Jersey. No matter which accent was used, every person said New erk.
Ruin is 2 syllables everyplace that I've lived. I would never say anything to you about your pronunciation of it, though.
Imagine my surprise when I moved to Kansas and "chalk" is pronounced to rhyme perfectly with "rock."
Some folks in this region are gonna put a pronounced "awwww" in chalk . . . but most folks all over the nation are gonna put at least a little "L" in it. But not in Kansas!
I have never "heard" the "ay" in bells ("bales") . . . but sell and sale are definitely pronounced the same in most of this region - as are pin and pen. The way folks say "pen" in Kansas sounds like "pan" to me.
My hubby has a nephew named "Brett" and it confused me for a long time what his name actually was - I thought they were calling him "Brat" as some sort of affectionate insult, lol. But no - it was yet another example of that "e" that Kansans pronounce in a way that sounds like an "a" to me.
Okay. Here is the scoop from a native - family on both sides has been here since the early to mid 1700s.
There are numerous accents (and variance on pronunciation) w/in this state, sometimes only separated by a county. However - AND THIS IS CRUCIAL TO UNDERSTANDING ACCENTS HERE - there is a tier within those accents (and pronunciations)that is divided by education.
Let me give an example: the word "chair." Depending on where you are in this state, you are gonna hear variations on the pronunciation. In one particular town (first hand experience here) . . . chair may be pronounced as "cheer" . . . but the same person who pronounces it that way may have been raised next door to someone who pronounces the word as "chay-uh" or as "chayr." Why the difference? There is what is considered a "blue collar" or "country" set of pronunciations and a "upper crust" or "educated" set.
Of course, that gets complicated when you add the mountain accents into the mix . . . but overall, just b/c you have heard someone in a particular town/county pronounce a word a particular way . . . that doesn't mean it is the "preferred" pronunciation.
To someone who didn't grow up listening to the many variations, the subtleties might be lost . . . but the fastest way to "message" to other natives what a person's background, education and "class" is always is thru/ pronunciation, even if it is something people don't consciously process.
So basically if I read you right...Billy Graham speaketh with the upper crust accent like "Chay uh" and "evah" "forevah and evah"
Chayr sounds like an old girlfriend who has that thick redneck twang. CEEment, UMbrella, hayr...etc I'll never forget "Uncle Bud". "How's your diner uncle bud?" "well...If it was any better, i'd hafta spit it out" as I spit mine out in laughter.
The witjadidja is still one of my favorites. "Dang...I need me a light. You aint brought it witjadidja?"
OK, so I'm another relative newbie here, but a big part of my job involves driving around all over the area, so fortunately I feel that I've already become pretty familiar with where most of the towns are and what towns are in which county, etc. But I've come across several roads/towns/counties that I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing correctly. Of course I don't want to be an obnoxious northerner, so hopefully some of the veterans can help me out here and maybe it will help other people as well. So feel free to add any more which you feel are often mispronounced, and also feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!
(forgive my phonetic spellings!)
Gilead = gill-eed or gill-E-id ? (I think the second one?)
Jetton = juh-tahn (I kept saying "jet-uhn" when I first moved here but was corrected)
Iredell = eye-ruh-dell (I was saying "ear-ruh-dell" at first)
Concord = I keep forgetting this one, "Con-kurd" or "Con-chord"?
Salisbury = Sauls-bury (I know there's always a debate on how to pronounce the one in MD)
Rowan = I thought it was just "Row-in" like the university in NJ but I think it may be "Row-ANN"?
So basically if I read you right...Billy Graham speaketh with the upper crust accent like "Chay uh" and "evah" "forevah and evah"
Chayr sounds like an old girlfriend who has that thick redneck twang. CEEment, UMbrella, hayr...etc I'll never forget "Uncle Bud". "How's your diner uncle bud?" "well...If it was any better, i'd hafta spit it out" as I spit mine out in laughter.
The witjadidja is still one of my favorites. "Dang...I need me a light. You aint brought it witjadidja?"
Liddy Dole has an educated Piedmont Accent. Billy's has always sounded influenced by low country (Charleston) a bit to me. Our families are related by marriage so I have done my share of listening to that family's speech patterns. (Not all of them have Billy Graham's exact accent - odd, huh?)
There was an accent here in Charlotte that I rarely ever hear any longer. Two of my aunts have it, as do two of my uncles. For some reason, my mother sounds less low country and more Piedmont. (for the record - my mom and her siblings are 82-95 years old). AND - the family relocated when my mom (youngest) was a baby so . . . I am thinking her older siblings simply were exposed to a different accent (the one you relate to Billy Graham). I think of it as the Old Charlotte accent but to be honest - other than some family members (and Billy Graham) . . . I hardly ever hear that particular "Charlotte" accent here any longer. Occasionally, you can still hear something similar in burgs of eastern NC, (around Raleigh and Rocky Mount, for ex) and then as you move thru/ SC to Charleston and then on down to Savannah - a lot of words sound about the same. It isn't a true lowcountry accent, but many of the pronunciations are darn close.
It is my favorite NC accent. I sound very much like Elizabeth Dole (I have been told by midwesterners) . . . but have some overlap of the Old Charlotte "sound" . . . and I lapse into the Old Charlotte accent very quickly, I have found, when speaking with anyone else who has that accent, lol. I guess I am a wanna-be, hee hee.
OK, so I'm another relative newbie here, but a big part of my job involves driving around all over the area, so fortunately I feel that I've already become pretty familiar with where most of the towns are and what towns are in which county, etc. But I've come across several roads/towns/counties that I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing correctly. Of course I don't want to be an obnoxious northerner, so hopefully some of the veterans can help me out here and maybe it will help other people as well. So feel free to add any more which you feel are often mispronounced, and also feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!
(forgive my phonetic spellings!)
Gilead = gill-eed or gill-E-id ? (I think the second one?)
Jetton = juh-tahn (I kept saying "jet-uhn" when I first moved here but was corrected)
Iredell = eye-ruh-dell (I was saying "ear-ruh-dell" at first)
Concord = I keep forgetting this one, "Con-kurd" or "Con-chord"?
Salisbury = Sauls-bury (I know there's always a debate on how to pronounce the one in MD)
Rowan = I thought it was just "Row-in" like the university in NJ but I think it may be "Row-ANN"?
Thanks!
The City of Concord's name was selected for the word concord which means "in agreement". It was based on the fact, that the site for the county seat/courthouse was being debated by the citizens of Cabarrus County and so an agreement was made to select the site in the middle of the county. The word concord is pronounced as "con-chord"
The City of Salisbury was named after the same city with the same name and pronounciation, in England. It is pronounced "Sauls-bury"
OK, so I'm another relative newbie here, but a big part of my job involves driving around all over the area, so fortunately I feel that I've already become pretty familiar with where most of the towns are and what towns are in which county, etc. But I've come across several roads/towns/counties that I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing correctly. Of course I don't want to be an obnoxious northerner, so hopefully some of the veterans can help me out here and maybe it will help other people as well. So feel free to add any more which you feel are often mispronounced, and also feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!
(forgive my phonetic spellings!)
Gilead = gill-eed or gill-E-id ? (I think the second one?)
Jetton = juh-tahn (I kept saying "jet-uhn" when I first moved here but was corrected)
Iredell = eye-ruh-dell (I was saying "ear-ruh-dell" at first)
Concord = I keep forgetting this one, "Con-kurd" or "Con-chord"?
Salisbury = Sauls-bury (I know there's always a debate on how to pronounce the one in MD)
Rowan = I thought it was just "Row-in" like the university in NJ but I think it may be "Row-ANN"?
Thanks!
Johnston-Oehler "Johnston-A-ler"
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In South Jersey, South Jersey only consists of the counties who attempted to secede from the state to form a separate state, circa 1980. Most of it has one accent (extremely similar to one of the Philadelphia accents. Gloucester City has it's own, & there is a distinctly southern accent in Deep South Jersey. No matter which accent was used, every person said New erk. 
