How do you pronounce “str”, as in “street” or “destroyed”? Do you pronounce it “shtr” instead of “str”? If so, where are you from?
This came up in a thread about Michelle Obama’s accent in an appeal for help for Haiti. I had always thought the “shtr” was a speech impediment, but based on several post replies, it seems that it’s a regional variation (which would explain why so many people seem to have this particular “impediment”).
Depends on how much I’ve had to drink.
I should have seen that coming! Cheers!
As I mentioned in that thread, I’m from Chicago and I do. Looking online, it seems to be common on the East coast (Philly, New York, and looks like Boston, too), and I guess it must be common in Chicago, too.
This short article seems to say it’s not dialectal:
I found the cited article here (warning: PDF).
Sean Connery says Shtreet
So does Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I mean Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Here in Germany it’s not uncommon.
Huh. I do it too. Never noticed that.
I was wondering if you would respond, considering your username.
I often wondered if it was related to the way Germans pronounce st at the beginning of words. In my German diction class in college, I was actually taught to pronounce it that way (e.g. stein would be pronounced as if it were spelled shtine in English).
Anyways, not only do I say shtreet, but I also say chree for tree and ackchual for actual. And, like I said in the other thread, I never noticed other Americans did it differently, even on TV. I thought not using it was the speech impediment, as everyone I’ve heard use it has a bit of a lisp.
The fact that it’s neither dialectical nor regional does not mean that it involves a speech impediment. It’s more of a "You say po-ta-toes and I say po-tah-toes sort of thing.
There is no “wrong” way to the best of my knowledge.
A lisp is an impediment in which an s sound becomes a th sound. (That’s oversimplification.) Michelle Obama does not have a lisp.
Did any of you eat “arsh” potatoes when you were growing up?
In my case it’s more like “schreet.” The “ch” replaces the “t,” not the “s.”
I totally missed that. Good call.
:smack:
I always thought it was a “ghetto” thing, like “axe” for “ask” or “A-ight” for “alright”
I’ve noticed some people also say “sh-tupid”. Co-incidence?
Could it be related to Yiddish in a way? I’ve noticed this occasionally from older Jews thhat are the children of immigrants; “schtreet” for street, “schtick” for stick (not used in reference to a comedy act or performance, but rather something like “schtick of butter”), and so on.
That’s what it’s been in my experience, too. I’ve lived in many parts of the country and have never heard it come from someone who wasn’t 1) black and 2) from a ghetto of sorts.
I wouldn’t necessarily discount it, but I don’t think so. The palatalization I hear and use only occurs in “str” clusters, not simple “st” clusters. So while I do say “shtring” and “shtreet,” I don’t say “shtop” and “shtick” or anything like that. Growing up in a very Polish area of Chicago, I don’t think there was much Yiddish influence here in the accent, but it could certainly be one of those things that persisted or spread from other neighborhoods.
The interesting thing is when I talk in a foreign language, I do not palatalize “str” clusters and they come out clear. It’s only when I speak English (or German, as I was taught to do so in German.) And I’m surprised some people seem to have only heard it as a ghetto or black accent. It’s pretty damned common among whites, too (see the list I provided in a previous post.)
Very common in the UK.
Characteristic of many Irish regional accents, especially in the west and south-west, probably influenced by a similar feature in Irish.
Or if you’re Sean Connery