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Growing up in Small Town, Texas I graduated high school with a Sounda
Cum Laude accent, which faded a little when I moved to Big City, Texas
and disappeared almost completely when I lived in Salt Lake City for
nine months. I’ve been back in Big City, Texas for thirteen years and
I’ve often wondered if some of my accent has come back, but of course
the people around here wouldn’t really notice if it had. I’ve always
"heard" myself as sounding somewhat intelligent with a small, barely
detectable regional dialect. I would make jokes about it, like when Veronica
pointed out that "pen" and "pin" are not the same word and I was all,
"Of course not, they’re homophones just like "are" and "our," but
really, I thought any accent of mine was negligible.
Until we spent almost six weeks in London.
Suddenly I was painfully aware of how often I say "ta" instead of "to" and "-in’" instead of "-ing".
As in, "We’re goin’ ta the park."
And in case there is any confusion, let me confirm right now that the
English, in general, do not understand the word, "y’all". I never
realized just how often I said it until I tried not to say it.
Teaching my youngest son to read has made me even more aware of how we speak. After the fun with letter cards,
we moved on to sounding out. My son has an ear for very subtle
differences in phonic sounds, which sometimes can cause him trouble. We
have conversations like this:
"T. Eeeeeennnn. Ten. What is ten?"
"The number ten? After nine?"
Silence.
"We probably pronounce it more like "tin"."
"Oh! Tin! Okay"
"G. Eeeeettt. Get. What does "get" mean?"
"Like you go get something?"
Blank look.
Y’all. I didn’t want to say it. I really
did not want to say it, because his reaction would confirm just how
much of a hick I was. But finally my desire for a literate child
overcame my pride.
"We probably pronounce it more like "git"."
"Oh! GIT! I git it!"
This readin’ thing is gittin’ ta be sorta bittersweet, y’all.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m from Big City, Texas and I used to have a lot of trouble with are/our and pin/pen. I remember asking the teacher in elementary school how to spell “our”, but pronouncing it “are”. That was the first time I realized that the two words aren’t supposed to sound the same.
We knew we were no longer in the northeast when my son came home repeating his teacher’s warning “ya git what ya git and ya don’t throw a fit”. It Rhode Island ‘git’ and ‘fit’ don’t rhyme
).
HA! As a girl from Georgia, I say embrace your inner Southern–and just because you speak with a Southern accent does not mean you are a hick! Anyone in Georgia can tell you there is a distinct difference between north Georgia mountain dialect and south Georgia dialect–heck, some people can even narrow it down to counties.
I am sure it is the same in Texas and, furthermore, I understand that the English can identify residents by the lilt or cadence of their “accents” to a meter of their birth place. So the Brits, of all people, ought to appreciate a lovely accent.
And, as far as I am concerned, a Southern accent is one of the most lovely. Well, the Gone with the Wind, proper variety anyway. I work in a job that requires me to call people all over the U.S. and I get more positive commments about my “accent” than you would believe.
Sometimes I actually worry that as we grow as a country and “homogenize” ourselves that everyone will lost their accents, and what fun would that be? Imagine how droll and vanilla?
Sorry to hijack the post–just have a soapbox about this issue. Cheers, y’all!
Julie aka Bunny
I have no real accent, although someone who does linguistics training for a living could probably pick out a few regionalisms. Nor have I ever lived around strong accents, unless you count the Canadian “oh” that has drifted south of the border.
But like Bunny said, accents are part of what make life fun. Viva la difference.
Oh, yes! We run into the same thing everytime I teach another one of my children to read. They look at me like I’m making them read a foreign language when they read words like “get” and “pen”.
Saying “Git” on purpose must have been painful.
My lack of a “g” when saying “ing” was pointed out to me as an endearing quality. I thought the girl was being nice and just trying to say “endearing” instead of “stupid”. So I have tried to pronounce my g’s.
Last night my husband said, “Swimmin-guh” huh? Guess I failed.
I think you are muy funny.
I totally had this same problem with my daughter
So funny…. She reacted to the disconnect between spoken word and written word by going through a phase (when first learning to read) of speaking veeery clearly and sounding out every ending consonant. Quite cute.
Ummm..yeah I feel you. I’m from NC so I use alot of words like ya’ll, ain’t, fixin’ to, yonder, warter, que-pawn, reckon, etc. To my hick relatives and friends, I have no accent. To all the people I talk to on the phone on a regular basis, I’m the hick. To my English friends, they have given up on me. I use it to my advantage.
I had all ready read your flashcard post, and it was every bit as funny today as it was the first time around!
I live in Not-Huge-But-Not-Small-Town, Texas, and I’ve lived in Texas my whole life. I never noticed how bad my accent was until we took a trip to Florida when I was in high school.
We stayed at a fancy (or is that fay-en-cee?) hotel with an elevator operator.
When we got on, and he said, “What floor?”
I said, “eight.”
He said, “Are you guys are from Texas?”
Sigh…one word, and he knew!
“I use it to my advantage.”
Um, yeah, me too. If I man thinks my accent is charming, particularly if he is in a service industry and can give me an upgrade/discount/deal, I will turn it on like Scarlett ‘Effin O’Hara.
And I don’t really mind if people think a Southern accent = Stupid (or is that Stew-pad)…they will underestimate me and then I will jack-slap them with my brillance! Ha!
Haha! Some of the comments are just as funny as the post. Mah Southerness comes out all the time. We say ‘git’ and ‘tin’ too. So, I guess you’re in company. Whether or not it’s good company is questionable, though.
I am a Georgia girl, so I git it. ;>)
Mostly raised in Oklahoma, I’ve done a good bit of traveling and I’ve been asked many times where I’m from. I’m not sure if it is because my elocution is flawless or because I mangle the language so entirely that not even “She must be from Arkansas” fits.
LOVE this post, and its author! WTG, Jeana!