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i was born and raised in nc,but family were kentuckians. i have a strong accent and dialect. i have a lot of problems with both when i am in diff. places as i move a lot. i will not change my speech,but i do try to make it easy for others to understand me. even in small areas,you will find more than one type of speech,no matter where you go. most will try to be helpful if you cannot understand what one means. remember,some southerns will say come on,come home with us, but it will probably mean nice meeting you,not actually come with them. i met a woman who said she did go,and everyone was embarassed!
Well, a few weeks back we had a lady call from Lexington. Her accent was very, very pronounced. I am pretty good with accents so I tried to listen closely and snapped to my polite 'former customer service mode' (you know, yes ma'am...no ma'am). No one says this in NY except customer service people!! (lol!).
Anyhow, she had 'some accent'...not horrible, just southern sounding. Now if she spoke to my husband he would have been lost. (he's formerly from Great Britain and only has a slight accent English accent now and can understand anything ranging from a Glasgow accent to a Cockney but he cannot get some of our dialects..!)
I'll tell you, almost everyone in Kentucky uses Sir or Ma'am. The children in school (experience from a California transplant to KY in 1991) get in trouble for not addressing their teachers as Maam or Sir. (My youngest brother was still in grade school in Richmond, KY in 1991 and he had that as a bad remark on his report card! It said "continues to be disrespectful when addressing faculty without the use of Sir or Ma'am").... it might be slightly different now, but you never know!
BTW... people who were raised around Louisville (pronounced Lew-vul) have a very different accent from people raised around Lexington. I don't know why that is.. but true. Yes you will still hear the accent in Louisville, but it is way less prominent than if you travel anywhere else in the state. Especially rural Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky. The accents are so sexy it's amazing! (I love "country boys"!!) Oh, and seems so many are re-locating to Lex. or Louisville, so I'll warn the people heading to Lexington... Please never pronouce Versailles correctly! I made that mistake when first moving to KY and they laughed at me and said, "Oh, you mean Ver-sails" (Spelled the way they prounounce it in Kentucky!) They don't use the word Soda either... Everything is a "Pop". Many do say, "Down Yonder", "Look at 'at" (they leave off the "th" on the word that), "fixin' to", "Mama & Papa" or "Meemaw and Pappaw", laundry soap is "soap powders", saying "I'm tired" sounds like "I'm tarred" and I've heard funny sayings like, "Well she's finer than a hair split three ways on a frogs a**" (Not joking!) Anyway, you get gist. It's great and I absolutely LOVE the KY accent. (My first boss in Lexington back in 1991 hired me over another with equal qualifications because she told me "she loved my accent)!" (She was born/raised in Louisville!) Hope this helps!
Yes, the town pronounciation is important! Versailles is not pronounced like its French namesake (as in Treaty of..). It is pronounced as an English word, just like it's spelled: Ver-sales. When you first move to the area you'll feel like an idiot pronouncing it that way. Then later, you'll feel like even more of an idiot when speaking to friends from outside the area about the town of "Ver-sales" - they might snicker and tell you you're an uneducated country bumpkin!
And Louisville is another controversy. Again, take it back to the French origin and say "Louie-vill", and you'll be instantly marked as a tourist. Make the slight change to "Louie-vul" and you'll sound like a Northern transplant who is slowly absorbing the local accent. Same for "Looaville", except you're probably from more of the Missouri and Western Kentucky region. Say "Looavul" (run it together) and you might sound like most natives and long-term transplants. Get as far as "Luhvul" and you'll really have that Kentucky accent - you'll probably be asked if you're originally from the rural area. Oh, and say it "Louis-vill" (with a pronounced "s"), and people might not even know where you're talking about!
I absolutely love this thread. I like to try to guess where people are from by their accents, and have found that the people who move around from one part of the country to another have a combination. I am from Ohio, but live in east ky. now. Been here for almost thirty years and have a pretty good accent. But when I talk to my family who are all in Ohio, I slip right back into the "talk of my youth"
Talking about the different ways of pronouncing Ky. cities. LOUISA..Most people around here call it "weezy". Whene we first came here I thought it was pronounced as in Louisa Mae Alcott. Now I pronounce it Lueeza, so people won't ask me where THATS at.
Yes, and for those Lexington/Richmond area bound folks.. the college town of Berea (south of Richmond on I-75) is pronounced by the locals as either
Bree-uh, Bree-er, or just plain Breer (like beer with an extra r).
Too funny that you don't really think of these things until someone asks!
my name is nancy, but when i say it to non southerners,they ask maxie? or daisy? so i end up spelling it. i have the strong "a" pronunciation. also here in sd people expect you to say the capitol city of pierre like they do , peer or something like that. i tell them i have my own accent,thank you (politely). as for those who laugh at our accents. the southern accents i would say are based more on british and other eng. speaking accents. i knew an english woman in fla. she put h in front of some words without it and left it off of words that had it. so people should not laugh at anyones accent. the accents come from our ancestors. language is communicating with those you are usually around. one should try to make it easy on others trying to understand, but always be happy with your accent ,who you are,where you come from. EVERYONE has an accent to someone else.
Maters And Taters, Down The Holler And Up On The Ridge ,,,got It !!
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Just had to add this
