# Local Language Quirks



## HLGStrider

OK . . . I have stated this before on this forum, but people probably just thought I was blustering: I am an Oregonian and Oregonians don't have accents. 

Now of course, the obvious answer is "No one thinks they have an accent. They just think everyone else has an accent." Meaning that to an Englishman an American has an accent but another Englishman doesn't, if you know what I mean? 

But I am not just blustering or being ethnocentric. It is true. Oregonians don't have accents. Why? Well, this isn't academically proven, but I have always assumed it was because the majority of Oregonians haven't lived here long enough for there to be any sort of common dialect. My family probably has the record in my neighborhood at five generations and my Great-Grandfather was from Missouri so our family accent has a bit of that in it, but the family down the street talks in a totally different manner, same with the other family, etc, etc, etc. 

Anyway, I recently was in a job training class where the instructor was from Texas (near the Lousianna boarder, she said) and she said out of no where, "Oregonians don't have accents." 

It was great to have an outsider agree with what I had always observed but then she followed it up with a disclaimer . .. 

"Except for ending sentences with prepositions. . ."

I thought about this for awhile. All my life I have said, whenever someone ask about whether gramar rules are too rigid, "Generally, no, but some rules you have to bend to make things sound comfortable. For instance, ending sentences with a prepostion is natural. No one talks without occasionally ending with with or to or from or of every so often." 

So, I not only do this, but I think it sounds more natural. 

While I'm not sure you can boast being "accent free"  I am sure you have similar quirks in your area. Want to name them?


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## Hammersmith

I was talking with a friend from New Zealand, and discovered to my lasting glee that his local colloquialism for a toilet (bathroom for you Yanks) is "The Long Drop"

Anyway, I'm a Surrey boy, so conjure up the most upright and exact Queen's English you can imagine and you'll get an idea of my accent quirks.
I should have been a butler...


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## Zale

Hmm well, I was born in Essex, but my mother apparently refused to let us take up that sort of accent (think East London) so I spoke the Queen's English - almost - until we moved to France, where I spoke French & obviously my English accent remained unchanged.

Now when we moved back to England, we moved to the West Midlands and I couldn't tell that the local people had any accent at all. But at school I was made fun of for "speaking posh" even though to my ears I was speaking the same as they were. But there must have been a difference because inside a year people had dropped it and I sounded the same as everyone else, with a couple of exceptions: it's "aitch" not "haitch" and I never turn 't's into glottal stops, i.e. _bu''er_. That's just pure laziness.

Oh, and the best slang word for toilet is khazi. I heard it on Steptoe & Son ages ago and I've been using it ever since


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## chrysophalax

Wow..where to begin??

Living in South Carolina, there are all sorts of odditites! For example turning every possible one-syllable word into at least two or three. Thus, "Hi, there!" becomes "Hay-yee thay-yur!' ack!

As to the local toilet term..."using the can". And the actual activity..."making water". Now I don't know about you, but I'd PAY to see someone actually make water!


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## Confusticated

I've lived in California all my life. I have a hard time identifying my dialet. I think that in addition to the typical California accent I have influences from the midwest since that is where all four of my grandparents and my two parents are from.

But here's some examples. Pronouncing _hail_ like _hell_. _Male_ just like _mail_ (rhymes with 'hell'). 

In addition to pronouncing like this, I might even hear them the same (if I don't think about it) if spoken by someone who does pronounce them differently. These are words known immediately by context so it never becomes a problem. Either hell fits or hail does, rarely both. There are other words like this. For instance feel/fill. 

I can hear the difference, and I can even easily speak the difference, but in my most comfortable natural speech when I am not thinking about it, they may come out wrong.

Same with keel/kill. You get the idea. So it is ee/i, and ai/e when they fall in the middle of two words with the same beginning and end.

I guess the biggest peculiarity isn't in the way I pronounce words, but in the way I often speak with a tune or hold on some random syllable for way too long.

A very common accent where I live is the Mexican-Spanish accent. I don't consider any of these things to be quirks though, since I am too used to the local accents. No doubt somebody who isn't from the West or South-west would notice many.


My parents have some annoying quirks though. My mother will pronounce 'wash' as 'worsh'... irks me. And another very annnoying one, 'told' as 'toad', which she gets from her mother, and thankfully I didn't get from mine!


I enjoying listening to certain Southern accents. Areas 21 and 23 on this dialect map. 

My absolutele favourite dialect of English though is Scouse, the Liverpool accent, which I_ love_ above all. The slower, the more musical, and the more nasal the better, I say.


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## HLGStrider

I have actually been told that I do the ai/e thing, but I always figured it was just my family because it is usually local Oregonians who correct us. 

My mom did grow up in California, however.


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## HLGStrider

Thought I'd bring this up again. I moved to California and apparently my Oregonian lack of an accent is noticeable down here amongst these locals. While at work last year I fumbled something (I talk fast, very very very fast) I said and to make a joke when the customer asked for clarification I apologized for my funny Oregonian accent. She said she actually could hear my accent and had lived in Oregon for two years . . . so maybe we are slightly recognizable. I always just thought I talked funny because in my family you don't win a debate by volume, you win it by speed, and the person to get the most points across in two minutes wins. InreallifeItalksomethinglikethissoifyouevermeetmeyouhavebeenwarned. 

Ironically, other Oregonians have inquired whether I was originally from some part of the south because I guess I have a twang to my voice they aren't used to. Guess that Great-Grandfather from Missouri left more of a mark than I thought.


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## e.Blackstar

Anyone seen the movie _Fargo_? That's pretty much how I talk...not quite that bad, but close.

My sister's username on multiple forums is actually yasureubetcha.


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