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Old 08-17-2013, 04:07 PM
 
Location: Wonderland
67,652 posts, read 60,413,515 times
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I'm probably not expressing it well in writing, because what I'm trying to describe I hear literally ALL the time, from friends and neighbors (not family because my family is not even from Texas). I was thinking about how to best describe it and the best I could come up with is that "right" and "riot" sound almost identical, with the "I" in both words sounding more like "ah" than a long "I."
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Old 08-17-2013, 04:16 PM
 
Location: The Magnolia City
8,928 posts, read 14,272,962 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KathrynAragon View Post
I'm probably not expressing it well in writing, because what I'm trying to describe I hear literally ALL the time, from friends and neighbors (not family because my family is not even from Texas). I was thinking about how to best describe it and the best I could come up with is that "right" and "riot" sound almost identical, with the "I" in both words sounding more like "ah" than a long "I."
I understood what you meant completely.
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Old 08-17-2013, 08:50 PM
 
Location: Where I live.
9,191 posts, read 21,806,698 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KathrynAragon View Post
I'm probably not expressing it well in writing, because what I'm trying to describe I hear literally ALL the time, from friends and neighbors (not family because my family is not even from Texas). I was thinking about how to best describe it and the best I could come up with is that "right" and "riot" sound almost identical, with the "I" in both words sounding more like "ah" than a long "I."
So you hear "riot" prounounced with only one syllable?

We've always prouounced it with two syllables--and "right" with one.

I was reading a linguistics page earlier, and the writer really lost credibility when he was rambling on about twangs/drawls...."For example, someone from Texas (blanket statement) would say "trap" as "tray-up."

WTH? Where in the world is all this coming from? "Trap" is a one-syllable word, and is always prononced as one word in my neck of the woods.
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Old 08-17-2013, 11:00 PM
 
1,866 posts, read 2,694,690 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KathrynAragon View Post
Awww, there's nothing wrong with it. But I know what you mean. My husband has been able to overcome this, though when he's speaking with people who speak like that, he can slip back into it if he lets himself do it.
Maybe not for everyone else, but for me, I don't like it. It's just an elongation of the vowel sounds in the every word but that's actually not how the word is supposed to be pronounced. Oh well, to each their own I guess
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Old 08-17-2013, 11:04 PM
 
1,866 posts, read 2,694,690 times
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Originally Posted by Cathy4017 View Post
So you hear "riot" prounounced with only one syllable?

We've always prouounced it with two syllables--and "right" with one.

I was reading a linguistics page earlier, and the writer really lost credibility when he was rambling on about twangs/drawls...."For example, someone from Texas (blanket statement) would say "trap" as "tray-up."

WTH? Where in the world is all this coming from? "Trap" is a one-syllable word, and is always prononced as one word in my neck of the woods.
Maybe where you are at, but the writer didn't lose credibility. There are different accents and linguistical differences throughout the state. Some people do speak like that in Texas, I have heard them, but not everyone does.
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Old 08-18-2013, 05:40 AM
 
3,309 posts, read 5,744,985 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cathy4017 View Post
So you hear "riot" prounounced with only one syllable?

We've always prouounced it with two syllables--and "right" with one.

I was reading a linguistics page earlier, and the writer really lost credibility when he was rambling on about twangs/drawls...."For example, someone from Texas (blanket statement) would say "trap" as "tray-up."

WTH? Where in the world is all this coming from? "Trap" is a one-syllable word, and is always prononced as one word in my neck of the woods.
The misuse of syllables was throwing me off as well. Maybe they stopped teaching this important part of the English language in elementary school, but that doesn't make any sense.
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Old 08-18-2013, 07:15 AM
 
Location: Where I live.
9,191 posts, read 21,806,698 times
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Originally Posted by Blackscorpion View Post
Maybe where you are at, but the writer didn't lose credibility. There are different accents and linguistical differences throughout the state. Some people do speak like that in Texas, I have heard them, but not everyone does.

As huge as Texas is, there ARE varying accents and such, but that really seems extreme to me.

And...I am from a very small West Texas backwater area, too, and we never talked like that!

Trap, bat, light, night, et al....are all one syllable words, and I suppose that some drag them out to two, but I really, really resent wholesale blanket statements like that for an entire huge region.

Makes me wonder if the writer had ever even been to Texas.
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Old 08-18-2013, 08:15 AM
 
Location: Wonderland
67,652 posts, read 60,413,515 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cathy4017 View Post
So you hear "riot" prounounced with only one syllable?

We've always prouounced it with two syllables--and "right" with one.

I was reading a linguistics page earlier, and the writer really lost credibility when he was rambling on about twangs/drawls...."For example, someone from Texas (blanket statement) would say "trap" as "tray-up."

WTH? Where in the world is all this coming from? "Trap" is a one-syllable word, and is always prononced as one word in my neck of the woods.
Here in northeast Texas, both words are drawn out and sound nearly identical - they both sound like "Rahut."

You can believe me or not believe me, but I know what I hear every single day of my life in this neck of the woods. Many native east Texans have a very pronounced southern drawl mixed with a Texas twang.

Not sure how familiar you are with southern drawls but most people who have heard one know that it entails drawing out the vowel sounds in a word, which makes some one syllable words sound nearly like two - for instance, in Georgia and South Carolina (two southern states which saw many residents move west into Texas), the word "here" sounds like "hee ah."

The word "trap" can sound like "tra-yup."

It's very common. And like I said, since so many people from the Deep South have populated Texas over the centuries, they brought this drawl with them. When it mixes with a Texas twang, you get what I'm talking about, which is common in East Texas.
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Old 08-18-2013, 08:18 AM
 
Location: Wonderland
67,652 posts, read 60,413,515 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cathy4017 View Post
As huge as Texas is, there ARE varying accents and such, but that really seems extreme to me.

And...I am from a very small West Texas backwater area, too, and we never talked like that!

Trap, bat, light, night, et al....are all one syllable words, and I suppose that some drag them out to two, but I really, really resent wholesale blanket statements like that for an entire huge region.

Makes me wonder if the writer had ever even been to Texas.
I've lived in East Texas for twenty five years. Prior to that, I've lived in nearly every single Southern state, as well as California and Ohio (plus two other countries). So I tend to pick up on subtle nuances of accents, as well as being able to detect WHERE a particular Southern accent probably originates from (and wow, there are a lot of them - including the East Texas accent).

Someone from Virginia is going to sound very different from someone from Mississippi. And the further west in the south one goes, the more twang and less drawl comes into play.

"Honey, you jus ain't nevah HER-ud a drawl qua-ut la-uk the drawl you'll he-ah in South Care-LIN-ah!" And when a bunch of those folks up and moved to east Texas in the 1800s, they brought that right with them.

Last edited by KathrynAragon; 08-18-2013 at 08:26 AM..
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Old 08-18-2013, 09:08 AM
 
Location: Where I live.
9,191 posts, read 21,806,698 times
Reputation: 4933
Quote:
Originally Posted by lonestar2007 View Post
The misuse of syllables was throwing me off as well. Maybe they stopped teaching this important part of the English language in elementary school, but that doesn't make any sense.
Along with a lot of other things....
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