Californians - accent?

[RandMcnally]

Living in Las Vegas and being in the military has afforded me the opportunity to hear many different accents (my favorite is a southern accent on a girl. I could listen to that reading the phone book. OMG, if they throw in 'darlin' at least once or twice, I'd be in heaven).

One of the things I've noticed about Las Vegas is the usage of the word 'hella.' I've heard that's a Northern California thing, but I have never heard that word used before until I got in LV.

And yesterday, some people pegged my accent as a Californian one. Why? There's a very good chance that it is because of my use of the words dude, like, totally, sweet, bro. For example: Dude, that was like, totally sweet. Seriously bro.

And I will admit to saying 'like' way more times than I'd wish in a standard sentence.

So fellow Californians, do you think you have an accent? If so, how can people tell you're from California?

Like totally.

[dangermom]

I have been known to say dude, sweet, and totally, and my use of like is practically unconscious. I like totally don't even know when I'm saying it. Nobody says sweet anymore though--I've heard elementary kids say tight instead.

Hella was a Northern CA thing back in the early 90's. I don't hear it anymore, but back then my cousin from Sacramento said it all the time--and her friends, and a lot of No. CA people at college. (Religious kids who didn't want to say hell turned it into a joke and said hecka sometimes.) I guess it moved to Las Vegas? If I heard it now, it would be like hearing a guy say "Hang ten, dude!"

People don't ask me if I'm from California, though--I went to Utah a few weeks ago and they all just asked me where I was from. I probably wasn't saying dude enough, but I've tried to cut down since I turned into a 34-yo mommy.

[silenus]

I don't think it's an accent (pronunciation) so much as it's a speech rhythm. Word selection also plays a part. Californians, especially Southern Californians, have a quite distinctive speech rhythm. I don't know where it comes from, but you can usually pick us out in a crowd quite easily.

[ChrisBooth12]

I live in CA, Sacramento and yes we do say hella and hecka. People look at us like we are crazy but it such an awesome word! Its a NO Cal thing. The great thing about being from CA is because of Hollywood our "accent" its recognized as the "american" accent all over the world.

[An Gadaí]

Ever since Cartman and Gwen Stefani used "hella" it has infected the world.

[Johnny L.A.]

Californians, especially Southern Californians, have a quite distinctive speech rhythm. I don't know where it comes from, but you can usually pick us out in a crowd quite easily.
I'd agree with that, though I tend to notice other people's speech rhythms. Since I moved, several people have said I have an accent.

[brujaja]

Here in California, people often assume I'm from Berkeley. :eek:
I guess the equation is:
my degree of weirdness on the Richter Scale, times the ratio of observer's relative worldly inexperience = MBFB (must be from Berkeley.)

I just haven't got the heart to tell them that Berkeley is mostly populated with affluent conformists these days. :(

[Darryl Lict]

I live in CA, Sacramento and yes we do say hella and hecka. People look at us like we are crazy but it such an awesome word! Its a NO Cal thing. The great thing about being from CA is because of Hollywood our "accent" its recognized as the "american" accent all over the world.
Hey, I thought northern Californians used the term NorCal and despised No Cal because it was a southern California term. Maybe it's a bay area thing.

My nephew from San Bruno is 21 and peppers his speech with "hella" but it's always used in the phrase "hella good". I don't hear so many So Cal people say it but then, Gwen is from Orange County.

[squeegee]

So, there also a speaking style? Where it sounds like someone is always asking a question? For every sentence? Whether it really is a question? Or not? Is this also a California-ism? I would have thought so? Because I've heard people talking this way around here sometimes?

[Geek Mecha]

I've lived here for almost 5 years and I haven't noticed a California accent. Generally, people speak clearly and without any grammatical oddities. I haven't heard anyone say "hella" yet, but as soon as I do, I'll be sure to stab them in the throat.

Maybe I just don't have the ear for it yet. I can pick out Hawaiians, though, quite easily.

I say dude, like, totally, and sweet. I don't interject it every other word and not in a stoner/surfer voice, but I do say it, and I'm not from here.

So, there also a speaking style? Where it sounds like someone is always asking a question? For every sentence? Whether it really is a question? Or not? Is this also a California-ism? I would have thought so? Because I've heard people talking this way around here sometimes?
I thought it was a Quahog thing.

[NAF1138]

So, there also a speaking style? Where it sounds like someone is always asking a question? For every sentence? Whether it really is a question? Or not? Is this also a California-ism? I would have thought so? Because I've heard people talking this way around here sometimes?

I haven't heard that in years, but I think it is a California thing if folks still do it at all.

Hella, is NorCal and is one of the very few words that makes my skin crawl.

My conception of the California accent is a combination of cadence (like silenus said) and also a lazy soft a sound. I don't know why but native Californian's don't open their mouths wide enough to make this sound (in accordance with Standard American) and it ends up being a flat sound rather than a round sound. (I don't know if I am describing it well since I, with my heavy California accent, don't actually hear it. I am parroting what my voice and speach teacher told me in college.)

Also, I personally use the word dude much more than I am comforatble with, but can't seem to break myself of it.

[Johnny L.A.]

Also, I personally use the word dude much more than I am comforatble with, but can't seem to break myself of it.
Dude.

[NAF1138]

Dude.
I know, right?

[An Gadaí]

So, there also a speaking style? Where it sounds like someone is always asking a question? For every sentence? Whether it really is a question? Or not? Is this also a California-ism? I would have thought so? Because I've heard people talking this way around here sometimes?

Rising inflection is common in most (all?) English speaking countries in certain age/peer groups.

[ThirdOne]

Would be interesting to know how many were actually born and grew up in Calif. I did, as did my mother before me. However, our speech would have been influenced by her parents who were from W. VA and Texas, as well as my father, who was from Ohio. I'm not so sure there really is a Calif. accent, as most people (in So. Calif. where I'm from) who live there now came from elsewhere. My aunt's family lived in So. Calif. since the 1800's, but I never noticed an accent - maybe because I was born there and listened to her all my life.

[Oredigger77]

I know there is a Californian accent because everyone talked with one when I moved there is 5th grade but by 7th I don't hear it any more so I assume that I speak with the accent. No idea what it is though. But living in Colorado or Texas I've never heard someone guess what state I'm from by my accent and most tell me that I don't have one. But yes I use sweet like totally all the time dude.

[Syntropy]

Also, I personally use the word dude much more than I am comfortable with, but can't seem to break myself of it.

But "dude" is such a perfect word. We use it to express a myriad of emotions; joy, apprehension, awe, disappointment, disgust, amusement, annoyance, longing.... all depending on tonality and how long we draw out the u.

I suppose we may use it too often. After my son was born, my brother called him "little dude" so much, it was one of my son's first words. My brother is now permanently dubbed "uncle dude."

[Bearflag70]

People in SoCal tend to put the word "the" in front of highway and freeway numbers.

Interstate 5 in NorCal is just "5" but in SoCal is "The 5"

US Highway 101 in NorCal is just "101" but in SoCal is "The 101"

State Route 99 in NorCal is just "99" but in SoCal is "The 99"

[NajaNivea]

I know, right?
No, no.

"Dude, I know, right?"

Glad to be of service
:D

Dude, I swear we NorCal folks do not have an accent of any kind. In fact, our accent is the neutral lack of all other American accents. I will assert this until my dying day, despite the fact that my husband and all his Virginia pals insist that I do.
Dude, I hella wish I had an accent. That would be sweet!
;)

[NAF1138]

No, no.

"Dude, I know, right?"



No, throwing the dude in front changes it from being just a head nodding agreement into something that has a hint of shock to it. (Though I use really do use both phrases liberally in my regular speech. Unless I am being office NAF, in which case I manage to get rid of all of that as well as remove the "fuck" from inbetween every other word.)

[Yllaria]

I had an physics teacher in Napa, who said that we should cut the state in half, because we'd end up with the dietetic states: No Cal and Low Cal.

He also taught a bunch of entropy equations. Guess which I remember?

[NajaNivea]

No, throwing the dude in front changes it from being just a head nodding agreement into something that has a hint of shock to it. (Though I use really do use both phrases liberally in my regular speech. Unless I am being office NAF, in which case I manage to get rid of all of that as well as remove the "fuck" from inbetween every other word.)
Well, I should have used an ellipsis, but if a hint of shock were needed, I'd have said: "Dude! I know, right?" Whereas "Dude... I know, right?" is weary resignation or knowing agreement.
Dude, I love the word "dude".

[Jonathan Chance]

I'd agree with that, though I tend to notice other people's speech rhythms. Since I moved, several people have said I have an accent.

Count me in on that. I lived in LA (Redondo Beach) from ages 4 through about 14 and it imprinted me. My word choice, inflection, and speech rhythm spot me as SoCal all the time. It's been almost 30 years since I left and it's still with me.

Even when I get imprinted with an overlay (Chicago or Virginia south) it's still there as the very root of my speech. I figure it'll be here for the rest of my life, dude.

Huh. Just occurred to me that I still call Lady Chance 'Babe' a thousand times a day.

[The Them]

"dude" and "cool" are common everywhere in the English speaking world.
When I lived in CA, I noticed that most SoCal folks - well, girls - had this "chirp" noise that they'd use a lot; listen to Missing Persons "Nobody Walks in LA" for an extreme example of this. The guys, all over CA from my observation, use something like a fast version of a Southern drawl. If that is a comprehensible statement. :dubious:

[Ghanima]

When I lived in Vermont, my Californiaisms that people really noticed were the words "bummer" and "stoked". For example:

Dude, my car was covered with ice this morning and I had to scrape my windshield. It was such a bummer.

or

Dude, I'm going to Cali next weekend to visit my friend...I'm so stoked!

They had apparently never heard these terms before. "Stoked" was something you did to a fire.

[guizot]

So, there also a speaking style? Where it sounds like someone is always asking a question? For every sentence? Whether it really is a question? Or not? Is this also a California-ism? I would have thought so? Because I've heard people talking this way around here sometimes?It's called uptalk, and as mentioned above, people of a certain age all over do it, and some adults, too. Frank Zappa recorded a song called "Valley Girl" in which his daughter talks like this throughout, and so some people call it "valspeak." My understanding is that actually the valley girls picked it up from the surfers in Malibu--they would cross the Santa Monica Mountains and hang out at the beach, especially during the summer.

[dangermom]

But "dude" is such a perfect word. We use it to express a myriad of emotions; joy, apprehension, awe, disappointment, disgust, amusement, annoyance, longing.... all depending on tonality and how long we draw out the u.
Dude, that is so true. I think that's why I still use it--you can say anything with dude!

[Suburban Plankton]

Most of these examples of a "California accent" are really examples of a "Southern California accent". Those of us here in Northern California (NorCal is a SoCal term) have no accent. We speak the Queen's English exactly as it was meant to be :)

And putting "the" in front of highway numbers? That's just hella weird, dude!

[appleciders]

People in SoCal tend to put the word "the" in front of highway and freeway numbers.

Interstate 5 in NorCal is just "5" but in SoCal is "The 5"

US Highway 101 in NorCal is just "101" but in SoCal is "The 101"

State Route 99 in NorCal is just "99" but in SoCal is "The 99"
And you know you've reached Oregon when it's always "I-5."

[Johnny L.A.]

I refuse to drop the 'the' from before the freeway number!

I was with this girl from New Orleans. She said I had a 'surfer' accent. I said, 'Chya, as if!' Seriously though, I don't think I have an accent. However my third-grade teacher was a bit of a bitch who liked to criticise eight-year-olds. She made fun of my eight-year-old accent, and I've been aware of my diction since then. I know I have a SoCal cadence, but my actual pronunciations are (I believe) neutral. Except that I do tend to say 'dude'.

And to answer ThirdOne: Born in L.A. (actually Lakewood), raised in San Diego and northern L.A. County. Moved to Washington in 2003.

[Siam Sam]

My father was born and raised in Hollywood. But by the time I'd grown enough to really notice anything like that, we'd already spent many years in Texas, and apparently he had picked up something of a Texas accent to hear his family back in California go on about it. But his alleged Texas twang really never was all that strong, and I credit him with my not ever having had a very strong Texas accent. Him plus my Arkansas mother, but I don't think I ever had a very strong Southern accent of any type. It came out sounding more Midwest than anything, probably a good compromise between the sounds of my two parents.

But yes, I did notice a particular California sound whenever I met up with my father's relatives. Kind of an open brash sound.

[Acsenray]

It came out sounding more Midwest than anything, probably a good compromise between the sounds of my two parents.

It's pretty unusual for someone to acquire an accent from parents. Usually it's acquired from peers.

[Siam Sam]

It's pretty unusual for someone to acquire an accent from parents. Usually it's acquired from peers.
That was my theory anyway, since there were no Texas accents in the house. Don't know how to explain it otherwise.

[Campion]

My mother, the linguist, contends that one can tell a native Californian by how he pronounces the words law and stop. A native will pronounce the vowels the same, while non-Californians have different vowel sounds for those two words, and in practice I've found that to be true.

Beyond that, I can only reiterate that one can tell the southern Californian by the fact that he properly identifies the freeways (the 405, the 10, the 5, etc.), while the northerner, strangely, does not.

[Bosstone]

My mother, the linguist, contends that one can tell a native Californian by how he pronounces the words law and stop. :confused:

How would they be pronounced differently? I'm curious to know.

(California-born and Arizona-raised here.)

[NAF1138]

My mother, the linguist, contends that one can tell a native Californian by how he pronounces the words law and stop. A native will pronounce the vowels the same, while non-Californians have different vowel sounds for those two words, and in practice I've found that to be true.

Beyond that, I can only reiterate that one can tell the southern Californian by the fact that he properly identifies the freeways (the 405, the 10, the 5, etc.), while the northerner, strangely, does not.

You know, I never thought about it before, but I absolutly pronounce law and stop with the same vowel sound. I need to go find me a non native and get them to say them now.

I have always thought that a large part of the reason we "don't" hav accents here is because the large number of transplants we have. All of those other accents blend into our native accent and sort of neutralize it.

I could be totally wrong though.

Psudo science is fun!

[Siam Sam]

:confused:

How would they be pronounced differently? I'm curious to know.

(California-born and Arizona-raised here.)
I've heard of linguists who can pin down where you're from within a couple hundred miles.

[Campion]

I need to go find me a non native and get them to say them now.I know! It's a totally fun party game.

How would they be pronounced differently?
Imagine Hillary Clinton saying those words and you can see how the vowels are different.

I've heard of linguists who can pin down where you're from within a couple hundred miles.Or even blocks, if the linguist in question is Henry Higgins.

[dangermom]

Yeah, I pronounce law and stop with the same vowel sound. But I can't think of how Hillary would say them any differently.

(Third-generation Californian.)

[Queen Bruin]

Dude.
I know, right?
Crap. That's like half of my daily conversation right there.

(2nd generation SoCalifornian, born in North LA county.)

[Daffyd]

It's strange - moving from SF to Toronto - I still talk the same, (at least no-one comments on it), but people here really do talk differently... I can't figure out why their accent can be so obvious to me, and yet I don't seem to have one to them...

Then again, I was never much into using hella.... and no-one seems to even notice when I call them dude...

This thread is totally screwing with my head. :D

[movingfinger]

Native Southern Californian here. I have noticed that we tend to avoid the soft "I" sound in many words.

Milk is pronounced "melk", and Wilshire is pronounced "Woolshure" or "W'lsh'r".

And I have never heard a local use the word "hella". Never.

[Yookeroo]

I refuse to drop the 'the' from before the freeway number!

Because it makes sense. If someone tells me to "take 5 north...", "I'll be asking take 5 what? People? Minutes?" "The 5" is just a shortening of "the 5 freeway".

[Mosier]

You know the turtle from Finding Nemo? He was from California, no doubt about it.

I hardly hear anyone say "hella" here in Vegas except high school kids. Are you talking to people who have just graduated?

[Darryl Lict]

Most of these examples of a "California accent" are really examples of a "Southern California accent". Those of us here in Northern California (NorCal is a SoCal term) have no accent. We speak the Queen's English exactly as it was meant to be :)
Dammit, NorCal is a NoCal term. NoCal is a SoCal term.

(2nd generation SoCalifornian, born in North LA county.)
Dude, I'm second gen Californian too! (Although my Mom is from NoCal.) I've met a 6th generation Santa Barbarian. I think they sounded like me. My brother-in-law is pretty close to 5th generation Californian, and is probably 100% Chinese, but speaks much more formally in a dialect not easily recognizable as Californian (doesn't cuss at all, never uses "dude". "sweet" or "gnarley"). I almost never use the term Cali, though. This may be a generational thing.

Milk is pronounced "melk", and Wilshire is pronounced "Woolshure" or "W'lsh'r".
What? The i in milk is pronounced like the i in MILF! Wilshire is pronounced like WILL-SURE, or the 'Miracle Mile". OK, I speak the special dialect of Valley speak.

I had an physics teacher in Napa, who said that we should cut the state in half, because we'd end up with the dietetic states: No Cal and Low Cal.
LoCal is a subset of SoCal and is defined by the area south of Camp Pendleton. I rarely hear the term actually used, and generally only in jest.

[Johnny L.A.]

Milk is pronounced "melk"
I've only hear one person in California who prnounced 'milk' that way. He lived in Mississippi until he was eight or nine.

[Zebra]

I think a lot of Southern Californians sound an awful lot like Okies.

[Acsenray]

Because it makes sense. If someone tells me to "take 5 north...", "I'll be asking take 5 what? People? Minutes?" "The 5" is just a shortening of "the 5 freeway".

Actually, 5 is short for Interstate 5, so that's why in the rest of the country, we call it I-5. :)

[Acsenray]

:confused:

How would they be pronounced differently? I'm curious to know.

(California-born and Arizona-raised here.)

Well in British Received Pronunciation, law takes the open mid back rounded vowel (open o) -- [lɔ] -- and stop takes the open back rounded vowel (turned script a) -- [stɒp].

In General American, there are variations, but one common distinction is that "law" takes the "aw" vowel [lɔ] and "stop" takes the "ah" vowel [stɑp] (script a).

[Johnny L.A.]

Actually, 5 is short for Interstate 5, so that's why in the rest of the country, we call it I-5. :)
We take the freeway. So we take the [Interstate] 5 [freeway]. ;)

[dangermom]

I think a lot of Southern Californians sound an awful lot like Okies.Well, that makes sense. A lot of Okies wound up in Southern CA. Half my grandparents came with their parents during the Depression, and I have a great-aunt who really was an Okie from Nowhere, Oklahoma. She says that her one-room schoolhouse had 14 students and 12 of them were her cousins.

[RandMcnally]

Certain parts of Bakersfield (where I grew up) has this sort of pseudo- southern accent thing going on in certain parts of town if you pay close enough attention.

[even sven]

I miss California!

Not long ago, I was approched by a tall, elegant lady from the embassy, who wanted to let me know that somebody from the embassy was from the village where I am working. She mentioned we might want to meet at some point.

"Great. That would be awesome!" I replied.

She looked down at me and, with no small degree of disgust, said

"Yes. Awesome. Ah-hem."

I still call everyone I know here dude. Can't be helped. "Hella' is a Sacramento based thing that spread to all of Northern California (who the heck says stuff like "nor-cal" and god forbid "Cali"?) and every year it would cause a tiny war between the freshman at my central Californian university. But beyond the vocab, I think there is an accent. I think part of it is a near inability to say "t"s in words. Like, I'm from Sacra-menno, then I moved to Sanna Cruz, and then I moved to Oaklan'.

[Acsenray]

We take the freeway. So we take the [Interstate] 5 [freeway]. ;)

Actually ... You take Interstate [highway/route/freeway] [number] 5. :D

[dangermom]

But beyond the vocab, I think there is an accent. I think part of it is a near inability to say "t"s in words. Like, I'm from Sacra-menno, then I moved to Sanna Cruz, and then I moved to Oaklan'.That's a good point. I'm from Sanna Maria myself, but now I live north of Sacramenno.

But all of my Okie family people are from Bakersfield. That's where I lived until junior high.

[WordMan]

"Great. That would be awesome!" I replied.

She looked down at me and, with no small degree of disgust, said

"Yes. Awesome. Ah-hem."



Did you see the Daily Show last night? They showed a clip of The Pope finishing a speech. President Bush got up, shook his hand, and you see that he is saying (and spelled out by TDS) "Thanks, Pope. Awesome speech."

I think some slang is best left out of cross-cultural dialogue.

I was born in So Cal (Lakewood/Long Beach) but raised in the Bay Area since I was about 3. I gotta look into this Law and Stop thing - hmmm.

Oh - and for the most part, I agree with posters who frame a standard California accent as neutral - it sure feels that way to me, given travel around the country. But a Surfer Dude or Valley Girl - or just the local jargon - sure those are different...

I love Dude - living in New York, I Dude-speak all the time - watching Juno, where all the kids call each other dude was hilariously familiar. I started a thread about a week ago about the jargon folks use in their areas of interest (search on this forum for the word "geekery") - I illustrated my examples with sentences that all started with Dude...silliness ensued.

[Syntropy]

I think a lot of Southern Californians sound an awful lot like Okies.
I think a lot of Southern Californians aren't actually from Southern California. I'm not sure of the numbers, but it seems that most who emigrate to California from other states end up in Southern California.

[Queen Bruin]

I think a lot of Southern Californians sound an awful lot like Okies.
In my area at least it's because a lot of them ARE Okies. Ever read Grapes of Wrath, dude?

[dangermom]

In my area at least it's because a lot of them ARE Okies. Ever read Grapes of Wrath, dude?My grandmother told me that people in Bakersfield burned it in the streets, they were so mad. Not the Okies, the ones who were already there and felt unjustly accused.

[Queen Bruin]

My grandmother told me that people in Bakersfield burned it in the streets, they were so mad. Not the Okies, the ones who were already there and felt unjustly accused.
That would not surprise me.

I was Wiki'ing around and discovered that CA actually had an "Anti-Okie" law in the '30s - basically said that knowingly assisting an indigent person to move to California was a misdemeanor. It was overturned in '41 for being unconstitutional.

ETA: I'm sure others know of this, but I lived in another state for 4th grade, so I missed the big California history section.

[dangermom]

I think they probably leave that part out of 4th-grade history. I don't remember getting all the way up to the Depression anyway--it kind of went: Yokut Indians, Drake, missions, gold rush, done. But then, I lived in Bakersfield at the time, so probably it was hushed up. ;)

[Spectre of Pithecanthropus]

Ever since Cartman and Gwen Stefani used "hella" it has infected the world.
I've always heard it was a Bay Area expression, but Gwen Stefani and No Doubt certainly didn't come from there. They come from Orange County, which is south of L.A. and is (IMHO) pretty much everything people say they hate about L.A. increased by an order of magnitude or several. A couple of years ago we went down there to have dinner with my wife's cousins, three generations of them. They all lived in different areas in or near the OC. It seemed as if each generation lived about 10 or 12 miles from each other, and the driving was all along main drag boulevards that didn't seem to have any center or concentration of business or culture, just one Coco's or Ihop, then a gas station, then a Target, another IHOP, and so on. It's almost completely urbanized, yet there seem to be no cities.

[Spectre of Pithecanthropus]

People in SoCal tend to put the word "the" in front of highway and freeway numbers.

Interstate 5 in NorCal is just "5" but in SoCal is "The 5"

US Highway 101 in NorCal is just "101" but in SoCal is "The 101"

State Route 99 in NorCal is just "99" but in SoCal is "The 99"

Does anyone up there still say the name of the freeway, like the Admiral Nimitz? That used to be very common here a couple of generations ago, but has diminished considerably. I think in the old days when they were being built, and then were still fairly new, people were more used to saying, for example, the San Diego Freeway*.

*Especially odd they named it that--like all #0# interstates, it's a bypass. It doesn't even go to San Diego, but joins the 5 in OC.

[Yookeroo]

Actually ... You take Interstate [highway/route/freeway] [number] 5. :D
We SoCalers don't say this, but it doesn't sound wrong to me. Better than "Take 5...", which does.

[NAF1138]

We SoCalers don't say this, but it doesn't sound wrong to me. Better than "Take 5...", which does.

Yeah, if someone told me to take 5 north, I would probaly know what they were talking about...but I would also probably ask "take 5 what north?"

[Suburban Plankton]

Dammit, NorCal is a NoCal term. NoCal is a SoCal term.
Actually, everyone I know around here calls them "Northern California" and "Southern California"

[blondebear]

Native Californian (born in La Jolla) reporting in.

Hey, dudes, what's the happs? 10-4 and out the door. Hasta luego, bro.

Later.

[Brown Eyed Girl]

Yeah, if someone told me to take 5 north, I would probaly know what they were talking about...but I would also probably ask "take 5 what north?"
As someone pointed out upthread, it's because you don't just say, "Take 5"... You say, "Take the five north past the the ninety-one up to the six-oh-five." The only word omitted is freeway, as in the Five Freeway, not Interstate 5 (which doesn't require a preceding 'the').

ETA: I never heard anyone refer to the freeway as interstate until I moved out to the midwest. And nobody even says freeway here. Everything's a highway.

[elelle]

I'm a 4th generation California born; my family ran the hotel in Long Beach when it was a lil trainstop. We came from the Midwest, Nebraska, Missouri, and a waystay in North Louisiana.So, that accent was pretty Midwestern, which I see the California accent as being, amended now by hip terms and faster patter.

I moved at 8 to LonnnGilannd, NY, then Maine,"yaapp", then to the South at 13, "Hey, Y'all". Then down to Mississippi for 13 years. Got a softly inflected Southern mutt accent now, not the real deal. By gentle assimilation.

I remember going back to visit family in Newport Beach, OC, and having my closest cousin laugh at what came out of my mouth; "Oh, Gawddd, you have got such an Axxeennnt!" where, hers sounded so funny to me, very Valley Gal, and not at all how our elder generation spoke.

What I have noticed with visiting Californians to the South, now that I am pretty much assimilated, is that y'all talk real fast, and don't wait for someone to finish talking before talking too. And, this is a holdover for me as well, when I get whupped up on a topic, I'll interject , expecting that my CA family MO is fine, everybody talking, sort it out. It's kinda rude here, I've found.

And, in Mississippi, where I was leading CA folks around to document Southern Culture, all the fast talk would often get met with a wall of silence, which the CA folks didn't get at all, just not on the cultural radar. In CA, ya speak up, and often. It wasn't a stonewall at all, but, more, a deciding that , "Nahhh, I'm not going to be wasting that energy on the yammer. Why don't you listen a bit better?"

Being between worlds, I saw what was happening; just different ways of talking. And could mediate it, knowing where both parties spoke and came from.

An American mutt's expierience. I still say Freeway fer Highway though.

[Brown Eyed Girl]

Does anyone up there still say the name of the freeway, like the Admiral Nimitz? That used to be very common here a couple of generations ago, but has diminished considerably. I think in the old days when they were being built, and then were still fairly new, people were more used to saying, for example, the San Diego Freeway*.

When I was growing up in SoCal in the 70s and 80s, we referred to most of the freeways by their numbers. The exception was the Harbor Freeway, which seemed to be interchangeable with the one-ten and sometimes, but less often, the San Diego Freeway as opposed to just the four-oh-five. For some reason, the Santa Monica freeway was the I-10, as opposed to just the ten. I dunno why, extra vowels had a nicer cadence, I guess. And the Century Freeway was still mostly under construction when I left CA, but we called it the Century, which was in retrospect as much commentary on how long it would probably take to complete as whatever reason it was called that to begin with (I have no idea).

There seemed to be a bit of change up depending upon how specific you needed to be. Amongst my family, it was pretty much all numbers, though. Even at a young age, I became very proficient at figuring out which freeways we'd take to get just about anywhere in the Southland. My memory is becoming increasingly hazy as the years out of California pass.

And I loved reading the Thomas Guide while chillin' in the backseat on long drives.

[Bearflag70]

Around here, referring to freeways, people say, "Take 5 south to 80 east." Never "the 5" and not "Interstate 5" and mostly not "I-5." Typically, just the numbers.

Freeway names are not used in common conversation with perhaps the exception of the "Capital City Freeway" aka "Business 80" or just "Bus. 80" (pronounced "Biz 80").

I believe most of the SoCal freeway names were adopted before the current numbering system.

So, the "San Diego Freeway" goes from LA to San Diego, but now has two numbers attached to it (north of "The Y" is now numbered 405 and south of "The Y" is now numbered 5).

The "Santa Ana Freeway" is now numbered 5 from "The Y" to the East LA Interchange.

The "Golden State Freeway" is now numbered 5 from the East LA Interchange to the 5-99 split.

So, if you take 5 from Kern County to San Diego, you will travel through three different freeway names all sharing the number.

The bottom line here is that the LA freeway names and freeway numbers don't necessarily match up with each other.

[Spectre of Pithecanthropus]

Certain parts of Bakersfield (where I grew up) has this sort of pseudo- southern accent thing going on in certain parts of town if you pay close enough attention.

Sort of interesting in that even today we think of Bakersfield as similar to the rural midwest in a lot of ways--not just because they're all rural areas, but because of things like country music, which the Okies no doubt brought with them.

I read an article recently the point of which that the cultural and political divide between the north and south is not nearly as important as that between coast and interior.

[Spectre of Pithecanthropus]

Around here, referring to freeways, people say, "Take 5 south to 80 east." Never "the 5" and not "Interstate 5" and mostly not "I-5." Typically, just the numbers.

.
Come to think of it, "I-5" is what everyone called it when I got to UC San Diego in 1975.

I've always been amused by the way the interchanges are signed apparently without any regard to local relevance. On the 134, approaching the 405, you can chose to go either south (to Santa Monica) or to....Sacramento!