Of the several Wisconsinans I know, several have lived outside of Wisconsin for extended periods of time, so it’s possible that the woman I’m thinking of was influenced by a stint in another state. The best example of her particular style is her pronunciation of “water” as “watter” (sort of rhymes with platter). Where does that accent come from?
I’m genuinely surprised to hear that. I grew up in an Irish neighborhood, next to an Italian neighborhood (lots of immigrants in both), and people’s speech mannerisms were often remarked upon, particularly among the newly arrived Irish and first generation Irish-Americans. When I got to college, I got to hear Long Island and New Jersey accents on a more regular basis, and those differences were also apparent to the folks around me (although in some cases vocabulary, rather than speech pattern, was the giveaway). I don’t claim that we were all potential dialect coaches, but we didn’t all have tin ears either.
Since you seem to have encountered a bumper crop of strong LI accents, maybe there’s a correlation between strong native accent & inability to discern other accents.
I didn’t imply that Fran Drescher is the only New Yorker to speak nasally; I just wanted to point out that not everyone here speaks that way.
I also grew up in Wisconsin and find Wisconsin accents HEINOUS (no, I don’t have one). Why the hell don’t people use the -ing endings (it’s always nothin’, somethin’, etc)? And why do they say “Mawaukee” instead of Milwaukee? It’s torture to hear people talk there - listen to that Bob character on “That 70’s Show” - he’s doing a great job imitating it.
I have to say that the Chicago accent and Minnesota accent are equally horrible. The “Da Bears” sketch on SNL and the movie Fargo nailed those to a T.
I can tolerate any other accent. (It’s also a good thing I happen to LOVE the NY accent)
“All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.” Stephen Wright
I would never have come up with this tag ‘ebonics accent’ but I agree completely with your opinion of it.
Alternately, the accent from Johannesburg - well South Africa in general, really - curl my toes, gak.
All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people.
Wisconsin accents get even more diferentiated within the state itself (maybe becase of the pockets of immigrants: Poles in the north central, Swiss in the southwest, Belgians in Door County, etc.). My mom left home for nurse’s training at St. Mary’s in Madison, only 45 miles away. When she got there the other students made fun of her pronunciation of water as “whadder” (rhymes with “odder” - maybe the “platter-water” woman cited above was of Norwegian stock). Also, if there’s a T at the end of a word, we never used it; instead we’d put a little glottal cough. At the end of cat: “caa-‘ugh.’” Mainly, though, our distinctive accent in the Driftless hill country was dead silence, since, out in the sticks, talking is a mark of stupidity.
Most unique accent I’ve come across:
An english teacher who was from India, but she learned english from Scottish nuns. Yikes!
Weirdest accent related thing:
In the movie “The Saint”, the Elizabeth Shue character pronounces “seawater” as “seawetter”. What? Have you ever heard anyone use that? For the rest of the movie, her accent doesn’t seem the least bit unusual.
Most annoying accent related thing:
When I was in Dublin last year, nobody could understand our accents (Alberta,Canada), yet we understood everyone else just fine? Was it some sort of Twilight Zone where you can understand everyone but they can’t understand you? Or are Dubliners just jerks who pretend to not understand you?
What’s even stranger to me is that my sister in law is always asked what part of Ireland she’s from (by Britsh people) She says “the Canadian part”
Well don’t take MY word for it (what with me being Dutch and all), but some Canadians do sound somewhat like Irish people to me. Especially the pronunciation of the “r”, and of course the ever present “oots and aboots”.
This is my first posting, so please be gentle with me.
I just had to leap into this discussion. I had never heard an accent I didn’t enjoy until I moved to the southeastern U.S. and heard people talking about their dining room “soots”. I wanted to scream, “It’s a SUITE! A 'SWE-E-T! There’s an ‘E’ on the end of the word!” everytime I heard it. Instead, I would smile and say, “Well, bless yer heart.”
Luckily we moved out of the area and I was able to return to a normal life.
Then I heard Paula Jones speaking on a television special and thought I might throw up. (What kind of accent is that, anyway?!?)
I got this today, and it fits in too well…
Tendjewberry mud
Meant to be read aloud (for the full effect). Its amazing, you will understand what ‘Tendjewberry mud’ means by the end of the conversation. This has been nominated for best email of 1999. The following is a telephone exchange between a hotel guest and room-service, at a hotel in Asia which was recorded and published in the Far East Economic Review…
Room Service (RS): “Morny. Ruin sorbees”
Guest (G): “Sorry, I thought I dialed room-service”
RS: “Rye…Ruin sorbees…morny! Djewish to odor sunteen??”
G: “Uh…yes…I’d like some bacon and eggs”
RS: “Ow July den?”
G: “What??”
RS: “Ow July den?..pry, boy, pooch?”
G : “Oh, the eggs! How do I like them? Sorry, scrambled please.”
RS: “Ow July dee bayhcem…crease?”
G: “Crisp will be fine.”
RS : “Hokay. An San tos?”
G: “What?”
RS:“San tos. July San tos?”
G: “I don’t think so”
RS: “No? Judo one toes??”
G: “I feel really bad about this, but I don’t know what ‘judo one toes’ means.”
RS: “Toes! toes!..why djew Don Juan toes? Ow bow inglish mopping we bother?”
G: "English muffin!! I’ve got it! You were saying ‘Toast.’ Fine. Yes, an English muffin will be fine.
RS: “We bother?”
G: “No…just put the bother on the side.”
RS: “Wad?”
G: “I mean butter…just put it on the side.”
RS: “Copy?”
G: “Sorry?”
RS: “Copy…tea…mill?”
G: “Yes. Coffee please, and that’s all.”
RS: “One Minnie. Ass ruin torino fee, strangle ache, crease baychem, tossy singlish mopping we bother honey sigh, and copy…rye??”
G: “Whatever you say”
RS: “Tendjewberrymud”
G: “You’re welcome”
Hate to be a party-pooper but I don’t think it’s especially fair to slam non-native speakers of English for having a foreign accent. They’re foreigners or immigrants. It’s not their fault. They’re trying their best. Just imagine how atrocious we Americans sound when we try to speak a foreign language. I’ve lived in Spain for about ten years now and my Spanish grammar is perfect and my vocabulary very nuanced, but my accent is horrible. I’ve taped myself, and I sound exactly like the stereotypical American trying to speak Spanish parodied on TV shows here.
As for American accents, I’m from Kansas. We talk right. All the rest of you talk funny. Seriously, I think the most disliked accent among Kansans is the Chicago accent, maybe because the University of Kansas is full of North Side Chicagoans who couldn’t get into the U. of Illinois. New York accents don’t bother us because we just assume New Yorkers are from some other planet anyway.
Movies? Worst I ever heard was Al Pacino trying to do a Cuban in Scarface.
By the way, what was Paul Simon thinking when he put on that crap pseudo-Hispanic accent in “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard”?
I’m new here. Just reading posts to see what the board here is like, and had to jump in on this one.
I’ve always been curious about that. I was born and raised in Alberta, Canada, and I do not speak like that. I have talked to several net friends from all over the US, and some of them can’t tell that I’m Canadian from my accent. I did say the words “out” and “about”, and they agree, no “oot” in there. Is this an Eastern Canada thing? Or is this some kind of Urban Legend thing that all the Americans are in on to spook us Canadians? I watch American TV most of the time and I don’t think that I sound any different. Or am I just fooling myself?
Some people have a way with words, others not have.
A good example can be found on the Canadian TV show Kratt’s Creatures, which airs on PBS here in the States. Ignore the two goofy guys and pay attention to the girl that cohosts. She’s got the aboot thing going on BIG time.
“Honey we’re recovering Christians.”
–Tori Amos - In the Springtime of his Voodoo