h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I once heard a funny about US slang:

There is a constant number of vowels and consonents in the English languague, however, they do not appear the same in every place. This explains the migration of the letter 'r' from Boston, Mass to Austin, Texas for instance -- in Boston one drives a "cah" to the "bah" if it is "fah" (car, bar, far) -- in Austin one "warshes" the pickup before goin' t' "Warshington" (wash, Washington).

I have heard many examples, this is just the one I recall. There was also a bit about where the ending 'g' from 'going' went.

Have a lovely,

wsfn

That "r" isn't particular to Austin. It's very common in Southern Illinois too.

in vermont, the r's vary depending on the person. my friend rides horses, so she is asked how she likes "hossback ridin'." i ride in cars, my mom drives a "cah".

Long Island, NY (the little dingleberry that hangs off the butt-end of New York City) has its own rich diversity of slang, but is best known for its migrating 'r'. Much more frugal than their NYC cousins who shamelessly throw away a perfectly good 'r' everytime they say 'Mother' (Mutha) or 'Brother' (Brutha), LI'ers recycle the 'r' by placing it on words like 'pizza' (pizzer) and 'soda' (soder). A typical conversation sounds like"Yo! Ya wanna soder or uh bee-uh wit dat pizzer pie?" The response" Shaw I'll have uh bee-uh".

My poor sister worked in a bank in Mass. The three women she worked with were all named Linda and, being in a loan department, they all worked for a lender. Somehow Linder Linder and Linder all worked for a Lenda. I couldn't have kept it straight to save my ...er job. I guess if you work out where they are dropped, and where they are added, maybe it all works out. As long as the r's get their rightful place.

Then there was an instructor, I once had, who grew up in Long Island (pronounced Longggggisland). I pretty much figured they had to add that extra long g on the end of the word long, to make up for all the r's they dropped. That's my theory, and I'm stickin' to it.

PenGwen almost has the Long Islanders' pronunciation of Long Island right-It is actually one word:
Lawnggyland (To fake it say the words Lawn-Guy Land as one word with the accent on the ubiquitous
New Yawk 'AWWWW'.
-fughetaboutit

Padawan, thank you for that correction.. I never could get the hang of writing in New Yawka.
Now I have to wonder, is Lawn Guy Land where all the gardners hang out?