Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with dialect

Writer meets arthritis

grumblebee — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:18:40 -0800

Mac voice-recognition software for a writer with arthritis. My father's arthritis is making it more and more difficult for him to type. This is hard for him, because he's been a writer for decades (over 25 books and countless articles). He is considering switching to voice-recognition software.

Here are some things to note:

- He is originally from England but has lived in the US since the 1950s. He is a very clear speaker, but his accent is a mix of British (cockney originally) and American.

- He owns a Mac.

- He is not highly computer literate, but he lives in a university town and could find people to help him set things up if necessary. He probably will have trouble if the voice-recognition software itself is overly complicated to use.

I am looking for any advice and experiences with this. What is the state of the art these days? What's available for the Mac? What is the experience like for people who are heavy users?

Indian English Speakers with Shifting Western Accent

Non Prosequitur — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 10:04:40 -0800

Is it a widespread behavior for multilingual speakers of english to get a more anglicized accent when talking to a native speaker? I don't mean just common code-switching (someone getting a drawl in Kansas, or someone going 'you understand' vs. 'you feel me' in different contexts.) But people going from like, Indian english to completely westernized english (in accents, not necessarily in diction or dialect) without making a conscious decision to do so. This is besides people 'faking' an accent because of class issues related to these things.

Seeking differences between American English and English English around 1776 - 1815

IndigoJones — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:15:51 -0800

England and America, two countries separated by a common language. Check. What I'm looking for are resources that cover the differences in spoken English (accent, syntax, diction, catch-phrases - it's all good) between the two countries circa 1776-1815. I recognize the regionalism of each country will complicate the matter, but whatever you have is welcome. Written is welcome if spoken is asking too much.

This question can kiss my grits.

curiositykilledthelemur — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 14:54:05 -0800

Southern phrases like "gets my goat" and "burns my biscuits"? I just started working with an amazing guy from Mississippi and every other sentence is a regional phrase like "running 'round like a chicken with their head cut off" and the above "got my goat" and "burns my biscuits."

I love love love the ingenuity and creativity of his verbal skills, and I want MORE! Please humor me, MeFites, with some awesome and unique wordings, phrases, jokes, etc. from the South. Would love it if you would specify the region overheard as well.

Why do so many people say FoxFire instead of Firefox?

odinsdream — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:48:59 -0800

Is there some linguistic or cultural explanation for mistakenly calling Firefox FoxFire? I do computer support for a large number of people from various backgrounds and areas. Almost all of them mistakenly refer to the Firefox web browser as "Fox Fire" - repeatedly - even after I refer to the browser correctly while demonstrating it.

I do a majority of my support in the southeast US, but have some clients in the northeast and Washington state. I can't figure out why this is so consistent. Is there some linguistic reason why FoxFire is easier to say or remember?

Is there some existing cultural marker or event that gives Fox Fire a leg up over Firefox and I'm just not aware of it?

What are your examples of family jargon?

Ms. Informed — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:27:23 -0800

What are some examples of "family jargon"? For example, a friend's father once told a joke to his family that poked fun at the French. He concluded by saying, "Don't tell anyone from France." Now, within their family, "Don't tell anyone from France" means "Let's keep this between us"--and they say it even if the secret has nothing to do with the French. What are your examples of this kind of "family jargon," and what are the stories behind them? I'm looking for things that go a step beyond inside jokes--phrases that have worked their way into your family's private language. Phrases that would need to be "translated" for other people.

Thanks!

Site/Text with English dialect divergencies?

symbioid — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 12:53:47 -0800

There was a site of speakers around the world speaking a specific phrase in English. This was to show how regional dialects of English sounded. You could click on a map and it would pull up video of these speakers. Does anyone know what that site is? If not, perhaps a good response would include a concise phrase that can show different regional variations (cot/caught, don/dawn, pin/pen). I ask this due to a friend and I talking and she asking me if she had an accent to me. I noticed a slight Northern City Vowel Shift at times from her, and that got me wondering about this... I would like to post me speaking a phrase that has these pronunciations on my LJ, and have friends do the same. An interesting project, but I don't know a good source for such a text.

HELP?

What do you call a long, thin sandwich?

ChasFile — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:39:07 -0800

What do you call a long, thin sandwich, and where do you live? I'm looking for information about what people call a {hoagie, grinder, hero, sub[marine sandwich], etc.} based upon where (specifically in the U.S.) they live. Any help, anecdotes, personal or family histories, pet theories, and so forth would be welcome. Thanks!

Where can I find film examples of English spoken with a Columbian accent?

raygan — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:18:55 -0800

Where can I find examples of characters in film speaking English with a Columbian accent? I'm also looking for plays in English with Columbian characters. I'm in a Dialects class, and I need to study Columbian accented English in particular, apart from all other Spanish-language accents. Some examples from films would help me get the sound down, and could also help spice up my presentation.
In addition, I'm looking for stage plays in English, or translated from Spanish that feature Columbian characters.
Any help is greatly appreciated, as my Google-fu fails me epically on this. (No, Bad Google! I don't want films about Pre-Columbian cultures!)

What's my best language strategy for a quarter in Shanghai?

0xFCAF — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 01:29:19 -0800

Which Chinese dialect should I learn to best survive in Shanghai, and how? Difficulty: I have 6 weeks. I'll very likely be spending 3-6 months in Shanghai as part of my job. The relocation includes a language tutor, but I'll only have access to one once I'm actually in China. I'd like to do whatever preparation I can before I actually get over there.

It looks like the two reasonable choices here are Shanghainese or Standard Mandarin. Wikipedia says they're mutually unintelligible, so it sounds like I need to make a commitment to one or the other. How do I make a decision on which one to learn?

As for the actual learning part, my friends recommended Rosetta Stone or some other software/thing I don't remember the name of. Any recommendations or experience here would be appreciated. I can spend about 10 hours a week doing interactive material, and another 5 hrs/week doing listening-only stuff at the gym.

If it matters, I have friends/co-workers who can probably help me 1 on 1 for an hour or two a week on either language.

English is the workplace language, but being able to pick up on the basics with my Chinese co-workers will be helpful. I have no idea where they are from or what they usually speak.

What resources exist to help me become comfortable with a dialect of Japanese?

mezamashii — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:35:14 -0800

In preparation of studying abroad in the Tohoku region of Japan next year, I am looking for useful dialect-related tools and resources. Background: I'm currently planning to study abroad for an academic year at Tohoku University. This would be next year from October-July. I'm currently in my fourth year of Japanese study, and about at the intermediate level (500+ kanji, between JLPT 3 and 2).

I have recently become aware that the Tohoku-ben dialect is notoriously difficult to understand. I'm thinking that in addition to my normal Japanese classes it may be a good idea to expose myself to this dialect now so I don't have (as much) linguistic shock when I arrive.

I have already found sites such as http://hougen.u-biq.org/, but I am also looking for other stuff. Things that come to mind as useful would be suggestions of Anime, Dramas, and Movies set in Tohoku region (and with dialect). Also the more traditional language resources like recorded conversations and books explaining dialect differences beyond what Wikipedia provides would be useful.

It may be the case that I am a little bit too antsy about this little issue (in proportion to other things I could be worrying about), but I'd rather hear the opinions of people with more experiences than me. If you've studied abroad/lived in Sendai or Touhoku, please let me know how your experience with respect to language / dialect differences.

Wabbits.

jazzkat11 — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 21:05:28 -0800

Which British dialect pronounces R's like a W? ie. Pronouncing 'research' as 'wesearch". Is it Welsh?

In search of "authentic" Southern (American) accents...

ibeji — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 11:43:49 -0800

Language/Dialect-filter: In search of "authentic" Southern (American) accents... One of the 20 or so things I've always wanted to be when I grew up was a linguistic anthropologist (it's been pretty consistently in the top 5 actually). Instead, I've taken up #3 (sorta) and try to maintain #1 along the way. Point being, I'm fascinated by accents of all kinds and how they are accurately or inaccurately portrayed in the media. Of special interest is the "Southern American accent", a blanket term which many use to cover a ridiculously large geographic area that (not surprisingly) has produced a number of widely varying dialects.

Now the request: those of you who grew up in the South or hang with a lot of Southerners, I'd love it if you could give me film/media examples of the best and worst Southern accents you've come across, with regional specifics (about you and the actor's accents) if at all possible.

Bonus info: I'd also love to hear your take on the accents of the numerous actors who grew up Southern, had to lose their accents for their careers, then were asked to perform as a Southerner (Josh Lucas and the guy from Lost who plays Sawyer come to mind, also Parker Posey who grew up in Mississippi but I can't actually remember her playing Southern...). Do their re-learned accents sound odd to you, or do they fall right back into it?

Thanks!

p.s. Some resources I've found already:
the speech accent archive
This American Life #138 "The Real Thing" (8/27/99)

Gay slang in the 60's

lobstah — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 09:06:24 -0800

Was Polari employed by gays in America during the 60's ? If not, what ? My Google Fu has failed me in an attempt to find gay slang that might have been used during the mid 60's in America. According to Wikipedia, Polari fell out of favor during the latter part of that decade. Was it replaced by another underground dialect, or did it slowly evolve ? Bonus points for any list of slang used during that era.

Calling All Lit-Heads

rossination — Thu, 25 May 2006 17:24:45 -0800

Bookworm MeFites: I'm looking for novels, short stories, and plays by white authors where their non-white characters speak in a dialect. For instance, the slave Jim in Twain's Huckleberry Finn. This is for a paper that I'm working on. I'll explain more later, but I'd like to leave it open-ended for a little while. Thanks!

All your base are off of us

Mr Stickfigure — Tue, 16 May 2006 18:21:04 -0800

Did "based on" beget "based off of"? My girlfriend, the grammar-teacher-to-be, is in the process of grading papers and is going batty with the persistent usage of the phrase "based off of" in place of "based on". Googlefight gives us 1,490,000,000 "based on" to 1,750,000 "based off of", indicating a clear usage bias. I cannot find a dictionary (web or paper) that includes "based off of" at all. (Sadly, we have no OED.) Does anyone know where this came from? Are we seeing a phrase from a foreign language seep in via literal translation? Pop culture? Dialect?

In searching, I have found a large number of sites which, to my surprise, use both phrases. Is there a different connotation of which I'm not aware?

Where did pirate speech come from?

IndigoJones — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 11:12:14 -0800

Where did pirate speech come from? You know, the kind of stuff you get on talk like a pirate day . Not the argot, or the slang ("shiver my (not "me", that was Wallace Beery) timbers" is Stevenson, apparantly by way of Maryat.), but the intonations, that unmistakable accent, the use of final hard R by Englishmen, "garrr!" and "yarr!" in general. Clearly someone or someones have created a linguistic world here, no mean achievement, but is it organic or artificial? I'm guessing 1930's Hollywood, but it's been a while since I've seen Treasure Island and Captain Blood and I don't recall that they were quite so absurd as they are. (I could be wrong.) Is there any written record of such speech outside of films, preferably predating the twentieth century?

Or do you not think there is a distinctive pirate talk?

Just curious. Thanks in advance.

Why do some nouns get a 'the'?

tumble — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 00:06:39 -0800

Why do some speakers omit the word 'the' from before many nouns? I've heard this several times from British or Australians: "He had to go to hospital" or "She went to market". But then from the same speaker, I've heard "She went to the mountain". Is there a grammatical rule for this? When did the extra 'the' show up in American English?

Funny Native Accents?

IndigoJones — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 11:23:32 -0800

Funny native accents? Most languages seem to have a place with an acknowledged pure or best spoken form - Florence for Italian, Hanover for German, Salamanca for Castilian, Egypt for Arabic (true?), Tours for French (Quebecers try to make the purity case for their nasal twang- which I actually kind of like- though I have seen Montrealers shut right up when confronted by a real Frenchman. Odd.). Other candidates for these and other languages interest me.

My real question, however, is - what regions or dialects do native speakers of (fill in language here) find intrinsically funny? Also, why funny? Rube or Snob? The French mock the Belgians as bumpkins. Americans mock rural southerners and New Yorkers for similar reasons, but also Locust Valley Lockjaw for the unspeakably upscale. (No moralizing, please- I get it, it's wrong to judge people by the words they use and how they use them. This is purely a non-scientific inquiry. Though links to scientific inquiry would be appreciated. Or perhaps foreign films that illustrate these differences. All languages welcome, of course.)

As usual, thanks in advance.

Why do so many people pronounce Valentine's Day as ValenTIMES Day?

camfys — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 02:37:37 -0800

Please help me understand why so many people pronounce Valentine's Day as ValenTIMES Day? I'm noticing this more and more and it's driving me crazy. Are these the same people who say 'libary' and 'supposibly', because those two I can almost tolerate, but Valentines Day with an M?!?! Please explain! Thanks and I hope I haven't offended anyone with my first post on here. :)

What is this southern US dialect phrase?

Tin Man — Wed, 14 Apr 2004 13:39:54 -0800

I'm curious about a bit of (apparently) southern dialect. I'm not sure how to spell it, but it sounds like "do what?" or "du what?" or "d'what?" and seems to mean the same thing as "what?" or "huh?" or "say that again?" I'm from the Northeast, and the first time I heard this, it sounded really strange to me, like people were just adding "do" to the beginning of "what" for no reason. Does anyone know its origin, what part of the U.S. it's prevalent in, and what it means exactly? (Google was no help.)

How does British English read to Americans?

MiguelCardoso — Sun, 22 Feb 2004 15:25:57 -0800

A writer's question: how does British English read (and internally, silently sound) to Americans? [More inside.] When you read or hear something obviously "Anglo" do you enjoy it as something exotic, "quaint", funny, precious or cute but are still aware of the distance to the point of it preventing the desirable immersion in the narrative, i.e. forgetting about the way it's written? Or doesn't it matter? I suppose MetaFilter posts by the British contingent are a good example.

In other words, is an American editor necessary to "translate"/adapt, even if slightly, what was written in British English, in order to make the text flow for American readers? Thank you beforehand for any opinions on this matter.

[Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans and others are more used to British English and (I assume) find it easier to make the necessary unconscious alterations. Hence my directing the question to U.S. members.]