Hello all,
I was raised by foreign-born immigrants from Europe (Czech & Italian) via the Northeast (NY & NJ). I grew up in Miami, FL, and my science-teacher-mom made sure I did not have any perceptible accent. She had a bit of a Northeast accent I detected when she said words like "semesteh" but for the most part was accent-free, a tribute to the mood of the immigrants of the era, to learn English properly and only use their native tongue in the household with their parents. She still speaks Slovak with her old friends.
I have lived and visited all over this grand country, and finally settled in Texas 10 years ago. I encountered an entirely new (to me) dialect. At first I chalked it up to my blue-collar co-workers, but the more time I spent I realized this was the way things are done here, even among the college-educated.
The first anomaly I noted was the use of the word "chunk" for "chuck" (to throw something away). I realized this was regional when a local news announcer said a problem at the county jail was "chunking", where inmates would throw, er, feces at the guards.
Another common Texism is "put your John Henry" (signature) as a substitute for "John Hancock". I asked a co-worker, a college graduate and retired teacher, what the common saying for "signing a document" was and he said "John Henry" followed by a moment of thought and then "No, wait, it's John Hancock"...so he did know the correct way, but chose the Texism instead.
I also noted a tendency for locals to accent the first syllable of words like "insurance" and "umbrella". Other words in this category are "reward", "fantastic" & "potential"...to name only a few. The opposite is true of pecan, which I pronounced PEE-can. I was corrected my first day of work (on Pecan Orchard Road) that "we say pih-CAHN." The Monroe exit off of I-45 is, you guessed it, MON-row.
Being so close to Mexico, one would think the default would be like Spanish, which accents the second-to-last syllable. Who knows, maybe this was chosen as a way to prove one was NOT Mexican???
Another Texism is, when the object (or last word) of a sentence is it, the word it is always stressed. For instance, the phrase"you power down the router and connect the CAT5 cable to it" becomes "you power down the router and connect the CAT5 cable to it"
These are not accent-based, like "may-zhure" for "measure" and "whale" for "well". This is a manner of spoken American English unique to this area. Anyone have any clue how these Texisms got started? How about any local "isms" you find interesting? There are so many Briticisms that we'll need a separate post for it![[smile]](/data/assets/smilies/smile.gif "[smile] [smile]")
.
Tony
Users helping Users...
I was raised by foreign-born immigrants from Europe (Czech & Italian) via the Northeast (NY & NJ). I grew up in Miami, FL, and my science-teacher-mom made sure I did not have any perceptible accent. She had a bit of a Northeast accent I detected when she said words like "semesteh" but for the most part was accent-free, a tribute to the mood of the immigrants of the era, to learn English properly and only use their native tongue in the household with their parents. She still speaks Slovak with her old friends.
I have lived and visited all over this grand country, and finally settled in Texas 10 years ago. I encountered an entirely new (to me) dialect. At first I chalked it up to my blue-collar co-workers, but the more time I spent I realized this was the way things are done here, even among the college-educated.
The first anomaly I noted was the use of the word "chunk" for "chuck" (to throw something away). I realized this was regional when a local news announcer said a problem at the county jail was "chunking", where inmates would throw, er, feces at the guards.
Another common Texism is "put your John Henry" (signature) as a substitute for "John Hancock". I asked a co-worker, a college graduate and retired teacher, what the common saying for "signing a document" was and he said "John Henry" followed by a moment of thought and then "No, wait, it's John Hancock"...so he did know the correct way, but chose the Texism instead.
I also noted a tendency for locals to accent the first syllable of words like "insurance" and "umbrella". Other words in this category are "reward", "fantastic" & "potential"...to name only a few. The opposite is true of pecan, which I pronounced PEE-can. I was corrected my first day of work (on Pecan Orchard Road) that "we say pih-CAHN." The Monroe exit off of I-45 is, you guessed it, MON-row.
Being so close to Mexico, one would think the default would be like Spanish, which accents the second-to-last syllable. Who knows, maybe this was chosen as a way to prove one was NOT Mexican???
Another Texism is, when the object (or last word) of a sentence is it, the word it is always stressed. For instance, the phrase"you power down the router and connect the CAT5 cable to it" becomes "you power down the router and connect the CAT5 cable to it"
These are not accent-based, like "may-zhure" for "measure" and "whale" for "well". This is a manner of spoken American English unique to this area. Anyone have any clue how these Texisms got started? How about any local "isms" you find interesting? There are so many Briticisms that we'll need a separate post for it
.Tony
Users helping Users...
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