Yeah, me too. This is fascinating stuff.
Sometimes I forget I'm in California and ask for pop instead of soda. People look at me funny.
Raise your hand if 'ew.'
Buffy ,'Same Time, Same Place'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Laga - Apr 26, 2009 7:23:08 pm PDT #9046 of 28406
You should know I'm a big deal in the Resistance.
Seska (the Watcher-in-Training) - Apr 26, 2009 10:58:52 pm PDT #9047 of 28406
"We're all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?"
Accents and dialects are awesome things. As an English teacher (and having taught a lot about language variation), I really should know of books about American dialects, but most of the books I've read have been UK-centric. If I come across any, I'll let you know.
A really good book on UK dialects is this one. Very readable.
Barb - Apr 27, 2009 5:09:12 am PDT #9048 of 28406
“Not dead yet!”
Ginger - Apr 27, 2009 5:40:30 am PDT #9049 of 28406
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
DARE is a wonderful piece of work, and they're editing the last volume now, but, like the full OED, not really something the average person can own. (DARE article) I got interested in this stuff years ago when I worked at Emory and took some graduate classes there. Lee Pederson was some years into the 20+ years it took to do the Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States.
(eta pesky html)
Connie Neil - Apr 27, 2009 6:24:45 am PDT #9050 of 28406
brillig
I'm sad I've lost my native accent, but apparently when I'm tired or in a particularly good mood I revert. It certainly came back fast when I went back to Pennsylvania last June.
Isolated is a very good term for Greene County, PA. I was in a restaurant with my family, and something odd had caught my eye. Then I realized that the folks sweeping up and cleaning the tables weren't Hispanic. After a bit of Anglo discomfort, I said, "It's weird seeing people cleaning up who . . ." and I couldn't think of a way to say it, until my oldest sister, who lives in California, said, "whose birth language is English?" "Yeah!" Our middle sister, who has lived in our home town all her life, looked mildy baffled, but Sharon and I shared a Western-US-resident nod of recognition.
The homogeneity of Greene County--one of the reasons I left.
DavidS - Apr 27, 2009 8:06:18 am PDT #9051 of 28406
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Accents and dialects are awesome things. As an English teacher (and having taught a lot about language variation), I really should know of books about American dialects, but most of the books I've read have been UK-centric. If I come across any, I'll let you know.
When I first visited England I spent a lovely evening at the Bridge Inn (near Exeter) trading accents with British students.
"So what's a London accent?"
"You know, like Michael Caine."
"Huh."
Ginger - Apr 27, 2009 12:07:27 pm PDT #9052 of 28406
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
A mailing list I'm on says Tom Deitz died this morning. Talented people who are about my age or younger: please stop dying. Thank you.
flea - Apr 27, 2009 1:04:51 pm PDT #9053 of 28406
information libertarian
Oh, I got a message about him at work - apparently he used to work at the UGA library. I can fish it out and email you if you'd like to see it.
Aims - Apr 27, 2009 5:13:56 pm PDT #9054 of 28406
Shit's all sorts of different now.
Sometimes, I are dum. Kipling's "Just So Stories" /= Aesop's Fables.
Laga - Apr 28, 2009 8:09:35 am PDT #9055 of 28406
You should know I'm a big deal in the Resistance.
But they were constantly served up in the same context when we were kids so you are totally forgiven.