Kentucky accent (Louisville, Madisonville, Okolona: insurance, mortgages, high school)

[Jzer21]

Originally Posted by CraigCreek

However, hot browns show up all over Kentucky and are greatly enjoyed by almost all Kentuckians and visitors to Kentucky. Thank goodness!

I was born and bred in Western, KY and lived there for 25 years...and I had to Google "hot brown"-- never heard of it. So, I'll agree with everything that you said save the hot brown bit

[CraigCreek]

Really, no hot browns in Western Ky?? I am astonished!

Learn something new every day...Meanwhile, I hope you'll take yourself to Louisville, where the dish originated at the Brown Hotel, and sample a hot brown. Hot browns are excellent cold-weather food - but not ideal for summer.

[Jzer21]

Well, you were probably on to something when you said that Western Kentuckians sound like Nashvillians. There's no Louisville exposure there-everything comes from Nashville. I can't tell you much (if anything) about Louisville's history, but I can about Nashville.

[patrinka]

My mama was born in Lincoln County but moved to Harlan County when she was a small child as a young woman she (this was during the war years) she lived in Louisville. My father was of German descent though born in Ohio. His parents were raised in German communities. I loved to hear the soft drawn out voices of my mothers people - it seemed soothing to me, We mixed the features of our parents speech. I called my fathers sisters "Ant" but my mothers sisters were "Aint" My father said creek while my mother said crick. We pronounced Louisville "Luhl-a-voil".
I miss those soft drawn out voices. When she lived in Louisville she was friends of a family with the last name of Martin. He worked in the kitchen of the Brown Hotel. She used to be invited to share some of the things he brought home. Some of my favorite stories.

[Wardendresden]

Went to college in central Kentucky and got a job travelling the state from one end to the other. Eastern Kentuckians have a definite harder twang and some different syllable emphasis from central and western Kentuckian. There were times I struggled to understand some of the Eastern Kentuckians.

Eastern Kentuckians as a whole have a different sound and some distinct cultural differences from other Kentuckians. People are a little harder to get to know, but once you've managed to make a friend, you've got a good one!

[urbancharlotte]

Originally Posted by ncmom2md

I've always loved the strong southern accent of kentucky, Just the other day I ran into a lady who was in her 60s from louisville and had a very strong northern accent. I was wondering if Louisville had more of a northern accent then the rest of kentucky which has a very strong southern accent. Also if you keep going north or north east out of the city is the accent northern or southern? To me kentucky accent is very strange from one extream to the other.

That's what happens when a Midwestern state gets lumped in with the south by the US census. That said, my wife is from Eastern KY and her accent is without a doubt "southern". Then again, I've heard similar accents in Indiana, southern Ohio, and rural Illinois. IMO, the best description is "rural accents" rather than "southern accents". In some parts of the south, the "southern accent" sounds less rural than the accents in rural parts of Midwestern states (if that makes any sense).

[ladyalicia105]

Originally Posted by CraigCreek

There are several Kentucky accents. As previously noted, northern Kentuckians frequently speak similarly to Cincinnatians, with traces of German pronunciations and terms seldom encountered outside the area, something which can be attributed to the many Germans who settled in the area in the 1840s. Older natives of Lexington sound quite a bit like natives of southside Virginia - but do not have the "hoose/ ahnt/tomahto" pronunciation of "house, aunt, and tomato". Older natives of Nicholasville, just a few miles from Lexington, sound very different - much more twangy, and a slightly different syllabic emphasis. Eastern Kentuckians' speech is both twangier, more drawling, and can include words seldom encountered outside of the mountains: "poke" for paper bag, etc. Louisvillians sound a lot like Lexingtonians, but their speech can be slightly - very slightly - more clipped.

Western Kentuckians can sound more like Nashvilleans.

The folkways of these various Kentuckians are also varied and quite fascinating. The differences show up strikingly in regional foods, especially those associated with traditional holidays. You won't find goetta outside of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, unless you request your local grocery chain to special-order it. And those same Northern Kentuckians are unlikely to be familiar with central Kentucky's burgoo, while stack cake is native to the mountains and rarely found elsewhere, unless it's made by someone with associations to eastern Ky. Spoonbread is unlikely to show up in northern Ky, for similar reasons.

However, hot browns show up all over Kentucky and are greatly enjoyed by almost all Kentuckians and visitors to Kentucky. Thank goodness!

Oh boy! I want to move to KY from NJ and I have a heavy NYC accent. I didnt understand anything you just said. LOL!!! I will need an interpreter to walk around with me

[veggienut]

And the people in the mountains have a whole different accent than we do in Louisville. Some of them are difficult to understand. It is like a twang that is deep.

Years ago, I met a guy from Ohio somewhere who made fun of my accent. I really never noticed that we use "the" a lot. Also, I can tell people from Kentucky since we use "thank ya" a lot too.

[CraigCreek]

Originally Posted by ladyalicia105

Oh boy! I want to move to KY from NJ and I have a heavy NYC accent. I didnt understand anything you just said. LOL!!! I will need an interpreter to walk around with me

Was it the part about regional foods that baffled you??

Goetta (pronounced "getta") is a meat-based originally German breakfast side dish popular in Cincinnati and Northern Ky (where many Germans settled in the mid-19th century) - it resembles scrapple and/or haggis. Stack cake is from the mountains of Eastern Kentuckyy - multiple thin layers of spice cake with apple butter in between, yum! The Hot Brown originated at Louisville's Brown Hotel: toast is the foundation, covered with slices of turkey (and sometimes ham), then slices of tomato, Mornay sauce, and criss-crossed strips of bacon. It's served hot and is great on chilly days. Burgoo is a Central Kentucky thick, spicy stew with chicken (originally squirrel or other game) and lots of vegetables. And spoonbread is a delectable soft cornbread made from finely ground cornmeal and a rich egg batter. AS the name indicates, it is traditionally served with a spoon as it is too soft to be sliced. Berea's Boone Tavern is noted for its spoonbread, but you can also find spoonbread mix made by a Central Kentucky water mill noted for its good flours and convenient mixes.

Learn how to make a few of these treats, and you'll be cooking like a Kentuckian in no time!

[ladyalicia105]

Originally Posted by CraigCreek

Was it the part about regional foods that baffled you??

Goetta (pronounced "getta") is a meat-based originally German breakfast side dish popular in Cincinnati and Northern Ky (where many Germans settled in the mid-19th century) - it resembles scrapple and/or haggis. Stack cake is from the mountains of Eastern Kentuckyy - multiple thin layers of spice cake with apple butter in between, yum! The Hot Brown originated at Louisville's Brown Hotel: toast is the foundation, covered with slices of turkey (and sometimes ham), then slices of tomato, Mornay sauce, and criss-crossed strips of bacon. It's served hot and is great on chilly days. Burgoo is a Central Kentucky thick, spicy stew with chicken (originally squirrel or other game) and lots of vegetables. And spoonbread is a delectable soft cornbread made from finely ground cornmeal and a rich egg batter. AS the name indicates, it is traditionally served with a spoon as it is too soft to be sliced. Berea's Boone Tavern is noted for its spoonbread, but you can also find spoonbread mix made by a Central Kentucky water mill noted for its good flours and convenient mixes.

Learn how to make a few of these treats, and you'll be cooking like a Kentuckian in no time!

Sounds delicious! I love to cook. But unfortunately all i make is lasagna, manicotti, eggplant parmigiania, pizza, homemade breads, marinara with sausage and meatballs, on and on and on. All southern Italian cooking....