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Then there's the "Vocal Fry." We've all heard it (check online for audio examples if necessary). Unfortunately, we've heard it all too often. It appears there's an affliction affecting American women, and it's not going away. They think they have to sound like children when they speak (Think Savannah Guthrie, or any of the Kardashians) It's hard to describe, but you know it when you hear it: The guttural, screechy, and over-extended "Thank yauooooooooau...." and "We'll be right baaaaacck" are all over the place.
Ugh.
Wow, I never knew that I would find something that I couldn't stand more than a southern or cajun accent. Jesus Christ, and then I found out that the trend is attributed to the Kardashians and Kesha. No wonder women don't get respect in the world when they imitate losers like that.
Honestly, If I was out with a woman and she started talking like that, I would ask her if she was ok. Seriously...
That word is part of standard American English dialect tests. When I was in college I spent way too much time with earphones clamped on my head listening to people say that word. The goal was to determine which part of the country the speaker was from. Good linguists can narrow down speakers to neighborhoods.
The way I wrote these sentences will reveal, to a good linguist, a whole lot about MY dialect. Most of us reveal our dialect in the way we write. Our dialect is not only the way we say words, it's the words we choose and how we use them to create sentences.
We all have a dialect that reflects who we are and the places we've lived. Yay. We are a diverse country made up of many types of people. I LIKE hearing someone say "Ah warshed muh duds in the spickett yesturdee."
It's an interesting field of study. Within New Jersey, where I live, there are so many variations of pronunciation. Heck, even in my FAMILY. My oldest sister says "Forest" and "Orange" correctly. The rest of us say "Farrest" and "Ahrnge", which are common in NJ. We're not sure why.
I always recommend this book on threads like this, hoping someone will be curious enough to read it. It's written by a linguistics professor but for the general public. So interesting!
It's an interesting field of study. Within New Jersey, where I live, there are so many variations of pronunciation. Heck, even in my FAMILY. My oldest sister says "Forest" and "Orange" correctly. The rest of us say "Farrest" and "Ahrnge", which are common in NJ. We're not sure why.
I always recommend this book on threads like this, hoping someone will be curious enough to read it. It's written by a linguistics professor but for the general public. So interesting!
I want to read that! I know of three NJ accents. 1. Metro 2. South Jersey 3. and Western (sounds mid western. I made those names up, but they are pretty discriptive.
As you know, I'm from Long Island originally. There are several accents on Long Island alone. 1. New England-ish (fading but still around on the North Shore and out east) 2. the "Long Island" accent that is infamous - spoken mostly on the South Shore and in Nassau County near Brooklyn and Queens. (watch the Long Island medium) 3. upper class WASP or "Locust Valley Lockjaw" 4. Suburban Valley Girl - spoken by people under 35 who went away to college
There are probably more. Relatively few people speak the infamous one.
I want to read that! I know of three NJ accents. 1. Metro 2. South Jersey 3. and Western (sounds mid western. I made those names up, but they are pretty discriptive.
As you know, I'm from Long Island originally. There are several accents on Long Island alone. 1. New England-ish (fading but still around on the North Shore and out east) 2. the "Long Island" accent that is infamous - spoken mostly on the South Shore and in Nassau County near Brooklyn and Queens. (watch the Long Island medium) 3. upper class WASP or "Locust Valley Lockjaw" 4. Suburban Valley Girl - spoken by people under 35 who went away to college
There are probably more. Relatively few people speak the infamous one.
We have variations in our family, also.
I think there's more than that in NJ. I grew up about 30 miles NW of NYC. We had no connection to the city whatsoever--went there on occasional school field trips, but my family never lived in NYC first as some immigrants did (Dutch and English ancestors came right to NJ and farmed or worked in the Paterson silk mills.) We said our "Rs" VERY clearly. No "New Yawk" type of accent at all. When I was first growing up, there were very few "ethnic" types in my town--it was mostly Dutch, English, maybe German. Very northern-European white/Protestant. Around the late 60s, there was a huge influx of "white-flight" people from the Bronx--Irish, Polish, Italian, and they had the heavy NYC accent.
But later on in life I had friends who grew up in Hudson County, closer to the city. They not only dropped their Rs, they said things like "yuhs" as a plural of "you" and pronounced the city of Newark as "Nork". It's weird, because they grew up only 25 miles or so from where I did, but the accent/speech patterns were very different.
Now I'm in Monmouth County, and I've met a few of those people with a midwestern-type accent even though they seem to have lived here all their lives.
But, nobody from anywhere in NJ--NOBODY--pronounces our state as "Joisey". For some reason, though, people from elsewhere like to say that.
It's all interesting stuff. I know YOU will enjoy that book, Sheena!
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