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

This occurred last Wednesday while I was helping a customer in our store. She needed to decide which product would meet her needs. So, I was explaining to the best of my ability what each of the products in question does and how. The discussion about what exactly was the desired result became rather long. She chose her products, graciously thanked me for the information and time. Then she said "Where are you from originally? I'm from Tennessee. You sound like you're from up north.".

Up North?! I live in Louisiana. I am from Louisiana. Never left Louisiana for more than a week at a time(doesn't mean I don't want to leave).

Apparently, I don't sound southern enough. Which leads me to wonder, exactly which accent is southern enough, any suggestions? Some of those accents are irritating, even to another southerner.

I don't mind a bit of Texas drawl (though I get ed when old boys call me "Darlin'" when I'm in uniform!) but a Texas twang is too much. The twang is sharper and more nasally, and tends to just rub on my last nerve!

Can't claim to have met enough Louisianans (Louisianites?) to know what you should sound like!

I've been in southern NM for going on 12 years now, and I still get the "you're not from around here, are you?" question a lot. I apparantly still talk too fast to be a native. Of course, the fact that I'm a pale blonde living in the desert might be a clue, too!

Hope all's well with you and the family, Evangeline!

"Darlin" me...and, I don't have a uniform. Thankfully, "Sugah" isn't said much here. I get "thanks hun" a bit, but that doesn't bother me.

Patrick Swayze has a nice drawl. Shelby Foote(the historian) has one of the thickest drawls I've ever heard. There just aren't any famous Louisiana natives to which I could compare accents. The Cajun accent is a drawl with some of the words softened or all together replaced with the French word or phrase.

All's well here, thanks for asking. The remnants of yesterday's downpour is hanging around a bit. Xena is asleep on the monitor. Mike is on his way to Tiger Stadium for the L.S.U. game.

How are you and the kids?

I'm born and bred in Ohio, so moving to North Carolina came as a bit of a shock to me back in the late Eighties. I found the accent in the Carolinas to be thick, difficult to comprehend, and not altogether pleasing at the time. A woman visiting from England was thrilled to speak with me down there, because, as she put it, "You're the first person I've met here who I can understand, with a lovely accent ... oh, you would be a huge hit in Britain." Apparently, I sounded as she had expected an American to sound, but the Carolina natives didn't ... and they had the audacity to call me "Yankee Woman".

My impression of the accent varied from individual to individual as I listened carefully during my stay in Carlotte. It seemed to me as though a person's speech pattern was largely determined by his or her social standing. In other words, it worked just as in "My Fair Lady", where the accent became more pleasing and easy to understand as a person is more highly educated, and/or from a more affluent background. We all recognise these distinctions immediately. Of course, this is only a generalization, but I found it to hold true at the time. To me, if a person's speech pattern is precise and clear, most accents *become* pleasing, unless the person simply has an abrasive tone of voice.

As part of my job, I talked quite a lot to people from all over the South who were there in the center of Charlotte. The accents that sounded best to my ears were generally the elderly Georgians, who spoke precisely, elegantly, and with a beautiful drawl. There was quite a romance in those older voices that seems to have been lost with time ... perhaps our generation has been exposed to more linguistic homegenization because of exposure to television. But generally, anyone from the deep South, including Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisianna who didn't talk trash, but spoke intelligently, sounded gorgeous to my ear.

There's a customer who calls from Dallas at my present job, who makes every girl's heart melt who talks to him. I've experienced that effect myself. There's something in a soft-spoken Southern man's drawl that can set the soul on fire.

Most West-by-God-Virginia accents irritate the snot out of me, but perhaps that's just my personal taste, derived from my state's neighborly proximity. I've spent quite a bit of time in Kentucky and Tennessee also, and I can't say that I'm fond of those accents either ... the people are wonderful, but they all sound Redneck to me. I feel bad about it, but on more than one occasion, I've ditched guys who were highly interested in me romantically simply because I couldn't stand their accents. This wasn't fair, but to me, a man's voice is the most intensely attractive or unattractive part of him. Then again, maybe I'm weird.

By the way, I love to listen to Shelby Foote speak. He's got a great Southern drawl! Ken Burns' Civil War documentaries were filled with lovely voices from all over the North and South. I enjoyed that series very much.


I could go on and on about accents! Aren't you lucky? <winkeye.

, even.

*fixes a round of mint juleps for everyone*

Oh, do go on about accents. They are of great interest to me as well. I agree about the different accents even within a geographical area being influenced by affluence and thusly education. Trash talk doesn't sound pleasing(to me) in any accent. And yet, I can listen for hours to eloquent rubbish... Elocution is very important.

I have met and conversed quite a bit with people from Canada, Michigan, Illinois, Oregon, Pennsylvania and California in addition to Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia and of course Louisiana. As much I liked those people from Illinois, that accent is my least favorite(next to the redneck accent). The other accents were okay, and just a bit different on certain words/phrases: coke=pop etc.

There are times that a movie or television show has irritated me to the point of being unable to watch it because the southern accents were so redneck = stupid as to be obnoxious. Didn't even last five minutes into "Deliverance".

"The Civil War" was a great documentary. We just watched "Gods and Generals". Robert Duvall did a good job portraying Robert E. Lee.

Hahahahhahahha.

Since when hasn't Robert Duvall done a good job? He's excellent in "The Apostle" also if you get the chance to take that one in.

Uh-oh. So ... do you mean to imply that Northern accents *stink*?

I've never spoken to someone from Illinois, so I have nothing to go by, but that state is painfully close to here. But, like Ohio, I would imagine that the accent changes from the northerly areas of the state who's citizens speak like 1920s gangters, until you find yourself bordering on Kentucky in the South, where the accent sounds more Southern, and therefore, much more Redneck.

I spent some time in Minnesota also, and yes, they sound like the people in the movie "Fargo". I found myself following suit, because I thought the Midwestern/Swedish/Canadian influence was just too cute, dontcha know.

From what I've read, Pennsylweenia has the most neutral accent, and that's the "Standard American" used in most radio, television, and movies. I'm thirty miles from the border of PA, so I tend to be fairly boring in the accent department. I have a slight twang of Cleveland in me, which is most noticeable in the pronunciation of the words, "car", "art", and ... well, anything with an "ar" sound. I can't decribe it adequately, but you can spot someone from Cleveland with their one unique way with that sound.

*adds "The Apostle" to list of videos to rent*

Not all Northern accents are unpleasant to me. Only the one that pronounces their home state as "illing noise". The Canadians had subtle and pleasant accents. It's one of those guys from Michigan I could have listened to for hours on end...good thing too, because he could have talked for hours on end.

I'm begging ya , please tell me middle Ohio doesn't sound like redneck gangsters...

"Fargo"?! Really? Oh, dear.

Every time I try to type Pennsylvania I have to make sure not to type Pottsylvania...too much "Bullwinkle" in the formative years, apparently.

Consonants aren't very sharp in a lot of words here. Car sounds kind of like carh. We say stuff like jambalaya...mostly we just eat jambalaya, though.

Pennsylvanians have a *neurtral* accent?!




Tell that to *my* ears! The people in this part of Pa have a lot of German influence in their accents and have an accent that sounds very strange to me (although I've gotten fairly used to it, since we've lived her for over 20 years). A lot of the irritation is the way that every statement has an upwards inflection on the end so that it sounds more like a question.

Thus, a simple statement like "We're having chicken for dinner tonight" sounds more like "We're having chicken for dinner tonight^?"

I've lived in Virginia and grew up in Maryland... Many times the least affluent Marylanders sound more redneck to me than the more affluent southwestern Virginians, even though they're obviously much further south geographically. There's exceptions to every rule, it would seem.

Amish don't count, Lady Scott! They're not Americuns.

What? Every state doesn't have Gangster Rednecks?

Actually, I have no idea what an Ohio accent sounds like to people from other areas, although I can detect variations, even within a fifty mile radius of where I grew up.

My favorite local pronunciation variation is something my Grandmother, who was from the Zanesville/Newark, Ohio area, used all the time. It took me fifteen years before I realized that people from slightly southwest of here actually *do* talk this way. "Dish", "fish", and "measure", are pronounced like "deesh", "feesh", and "mayySZURR" respectively. "Grab me a deesh, and lemme go mayyszurr that feesh.", they would say. I think it sounds histerical, and it's very very cute. (I always wondered what was wrong with my Grandma.)

One of my sister-in-laws, who hails from backwoods Pennsylweenia pronounces "sandwich" as "samnwish" ... it comes out very softly, and I've begged her to say it again every time because I love it, but she clams up. Rats!

I was upset when I visited relatives in California who swore up and down that I had *no* detectable accent. This is what I get for attempting to speak clearly.

And you think *you* have problems with your accent, Evangeline!

By the way, Lady Scott sounds "normal" too.

It would bother me to hear the cook say "We're having chicken tonight!?". But, but...*you* cooked it.

There are areas here where sink is pronounced "zinc", as in that dish is in da zinc... Onion is "unyon" in the Cajun accent. Potato becomes "puhtateuh" and pecan is "puh con". I have a friend who says "samwitch" instead of sandwich.

My cousins from California sound like me(right down to saying the same words... Jinx!) Speaking clearly is underrated. Normal is however, over rated.

Let me get this straight... AW said I was "normal"... so that means I'm "over rated"?


They're not *all* Amish here! I fully expect their accents to be strange though, because their primary language is Pa Dutch, a strange dialect that they derived from their German origins and living in Holland for a while before settling in the US. I had to get one amish man to repeat "engine" numerous times before I finally figured out that's what he was talking about when he was saying "enyun", and he pronounced "tail" as "till". Makes for some difficult conversation, sometimes...

But I wasn't talking about amish pronunciations... I was talking about the way most people who are from here talk.... "ruff" and "ruts" instead of "roof" and "roots", "RADeator" and "RADeo" (with a short A sound) instead of "RAYdeator" (radiator) and "RAYdeo" (radio).

Speaking of how people pronounce "pecan"... I've heard the word pronounced "PEEKen", as in "PEEKen pie" in the south...

Sounding normal is fine. It's *being* "normal" that's over rated. You're much better than normal, Lady Scott.

*can't fathom what conversation would involve the words engine and tail*

That's where they pronounce roof "ruff"!? There is a mystery solved for me, thanks.

"PEEKen" is kind of Alabama and Georgia. It's definitely "puh con" or "puh cawn" in Louisiana, depending on how thick your Cajun accent is...mine isn't that thick, but my cousins from "down da bayou" are another story.
*waves to any lurking cousins*

This is a web page of Cajun jokes, should anyone be interested:
http://members.tripod.com/~cjnjh/CajunJokes.html

The engine and tail conversations came up at two different times...


One time he was telling me about an engine that had been stolen out of his barn (oddly enough they can use gas or diesel powered motors to run farm equipment, as long as it's pulled through the fields by horses or mules, or to operate barn equipment - go figure), but of course it took me a good long while to figure out what had been stolen since I had no idea what an "enyun" was.


The Tail conversation was from a time I was driving him to his parent's home in another part of the county, and he was telling me to turn on "Cat Tail Road". But imagine that sounding like it was all one word "Cat-tillroad" and trying to figure out where on earth I was supposed to turn...

I didn't know that about gasoline engines being okay if pulled by horses. Well, I've learned something new already today. Can I go home now?
Cat-till road ...I would have been looking for cattle road.

Yes, you may go home now, you've learned your lessons well.


I honestly didn't know *what* road to be looking for because he was saying this so fast that I was only partially catching the cat-till part, which is why I thought it was all one word!

Accents that differ from the north to the south of a state, accents that drawl, twang, twitter and probably grate on the nerves. I will be subject to all these things during my travels??? And I'll have to decipher what they're trying to tell me?



Evangaline, if an Aussie (with no discernible accent, of course) wanders into your store looking hopelessly lost, could you please have a printed card on hand which will direct me to the nearest bar?

Lady Scott, unfortunately my boss didn't agree with you. I had to stay at work all day. To make matters worse, it seemed as if somebody kept turning the clock backwards every time I left the room...

Sir Evil Roy, should an Aussie(with no discernible accent) wander in looking lost, I'll personally draw a map to the nearest bar. It shouldn't be too difficult to illustrate: Walk out this door turn right===> number of meters to nearest bar=__. After all, Louisiana's official motto in Latin is: "Union and Justice" but, the unofficial and yet more popular motto in French is: "Let the good times roll!".

Is New Orleans in your travel plans? New Orleans has a lot of interesting places: House of Blues, Margaritaville Café, the whole French Quarter, to name just a few.

New Orleans has *always* been in my travel plans.

New Orleans is not that far from where I work...a little over an hour. If you'd like a tour guide, just say so.


By the way, it's New Orlunz or Nawlins.... New Orleeunz is pretty much "mug me, I'm a tourist".