Yeah, it did, thanks.
Huh, that’s interesting. Our family has used that phrase for years. And none of us is from New England, nor ever been near there. I wonder how we got it?
My mom was a California girl, and dad was born and mostly raised in the Ozarks, and then moved out to CA. My sister and I were born on the west coast, but raised, for the most part, in Anchorage, where I’ve heard lots of my friends use that phrase too.
Mostly it’s used as a way of seeing if someone’s ready to go as in “you all set? let’s go”.
It’s “Mis-ur-eee” not “Mis-ur-uh”.
It’s “Nev-a-da” not “Nev-ah-da”. Or, even worse, “Nev-ay-da” (although there are certain Midwestern towns named Nevada and that’s how they’re pronounced).
terrorist
tear-roar-rist not terrist.
library
lie-brer-eee not lie-bare-eee
What’s wrong with that? 
Jewellery, on the other hand…
Why, it’s the Dutch word for milk. 
:eek: I have a ‘mongrel’ accent, a mix of English and East Baltimore (from my dad) and God knows what else from living in different places – so in the middle of what some of my friends call posh talk ™ out pops warsh, Warshington, D C, and very interesting place names like Balmer itself (my pronounciation of Susquehenna can strip paint off the walls.)
The warsh and Warshington drives my mum round the twist. We must have sounded deranged when I was a child, and she would berate me in public, ‘It’s WAHter, WAHshington, say that, WAH WAH WAH’ and me replying ‘WAHR WAHR WAHR.’
Pair of barking (mad) seals, more like.
Not to mention that I went to high school in Wilmminton, Delaware. Or that I say Timonum, Harvey de Graa, Naplis, B’lair, and Toussend. Cos dad does. Oh yes, and the grand champion what makes mum’s ears bleed: ‘The Eastern Sherrrrr.’ And Phildelphia.
What’s interesting is that Newark, Delaware, is pronounced New Ark, and with Newark, NJ, being more familiar to people, I can’t tell you how many non Delawareans have corrected my pronunciation of Newark, DE, or laughed when I said it.
My dad’s family also says that they’re ‘going down the beach’ for their hols. And so do I .
Dad also pronounces ‘shower’ as ‘showr’ (the ow like ‘ow’ in ouch’). The name Laura comes out as Lore, but if you listen carefully, you can hear the second syllable.
On the other hand, having spent so much time in central Scotland, I’m told when I say the place names, they come out in a perfect Perthshire accent smack in the middle of the ‘innits’ and ‘noffinks’ and ‘shtupids’
No they’re not; they’re called estate agents.
And I apologise to anyone up in New England who has had to hear me say ‘Massachustetts.’ Really. I’ve tried not to.
Most people around here (California) say “ant”, but it seems to me African Americans are more likely to say “awnt”. That makes me wonder, is it a Southernism, seeing as how there was some mutual influence between African American English and Southern American English?
Few Southerners say “awnt”, with a few notable exceptions like Cajuns and Gullahs. Most say “ant”, and many, especially in the Appalachian mountains say it just like “ain’t”.
My second grade teacher, Mrs. Kerr, tried to teach us to pronounce it “Feb-roo-airy.” Being at best an indifferent student, I got it sort of half-right, so 30-some years later I’m still pronouncing it “Febber-airy.”
Lamont (Demond Wilson) on Sanford and Son always said “Awnt” Esther.
All of the black people I grew up with (anchorage ak) pronounced it that way too. So, I don’t think it’s a southern thing, as my elementary and HS friends were lifers in AK also.
Just thought of another one:
acrossT
The word is across. There is no T at the end. Would anyone care to explain where the hell that T comes from?
It’s roof! Not ruff!
It’s wolves! Not woofs!
It’s WASHcloth! Not WARSHcloth!
You twit.
People, please! Just learn to accept that these regional sound changes are just the begining stages of English splitting up into multiple daughter languages.
Whut?
When you have a toothache, you do not use your ‘dennal’ insurance to go see the ‘dennist.’ There is a ‘t’ in both of those words. :rolleyes:
When I was a kid, I could not pronounce the word ‘bureau’ to save my life. It always came out as ‘beer-er.’ So I became the only one in my family who pronounced ‘bureau’ as ‘dresser.’ (I don’t know when it happened, but I can say ‘bureau’ correctly these days: I don’t go around saying that Mulder and Scully worked for the Federal Beerer of Investigation. I still call a chest of drawers a ‘dresser,’ though.)
harmless: I pronounce ‘roof’ as ‘ruf,’ but I have no idea why. The rest of my family says it the normal way. I also tend to pronounce ‘tourist’ as ‘turist,’ again for no apparent reason.
Regarding the ‘ant’/‘awnt’ thing: I have a white friend from New England who says ‘awnt,’ and so does my black officemate who is from New York (Queens, not upstate or anything). My New England friend’s husband says ‘ant’ (he’s from Ohio), and we’re waiting to see whether their son will call me ‘awnt Misnomer’ or ‘ant Misnomer.’ So far it’s been coming out like ‘ant’ – maybe that’s just easier for a child to say? I say ‘ant,’ but I’m from all over.
Like Ms Boods, I, too, have a bit of a mongrel accent, but it’s not just Baltimore and England: it’s Baltimore, England, New Jersey, New York, and a bit of a flat ‘newscaster’ American that I picked up while studying voice (singing), acting, and radio broadcasting. So I am another American who distinguishes between ‘Mary,’ ‘marry,’ and ‘merry,’ though I didn’t do so until college.
I guess I will have to hide my ignorant self inside and become a mute.
these are all regional accents - not willful attempts to offend…