I speak with a neutral American accent and a soothing tone; I sound like the people on tv and have no trouble being understood. Not sure how this is relevant, but there it is.
I understand a wide variety of accents; I don’t tend to have difficulty understanding anything except the thickest Indian accents (and even then I do better than most people, because we work with outsourced Indian reps on a fairly regular basis). But you seem to be saying that I should be happy and fluffy about every single possible accent that crosses my phone. Where the hell is this idea coming from? I’m not allowed to be bothered about shit that happens at work? I strongly dislike southern accents because I grew up listening to them. I can’t change what I like. Get off your judgmental high horse, plox.
As somebody who works on a phone all day, I’ll second hating “do what now?” It’s not just the phrasing, it’s also the tone that almost invariably goes along with it. It’s always a little, “do what now?” as if I’ve asked something unreasonable by asking the customer to, say, read me the error message on the screen. Said customers also frequently give wrong information, have side conversations while on the phone, and are quite frequently calling to make unreasonable requests.
Similarly, I can’t stand the phrase, “cut it on” or “cut it off” regarding services. Again, not the phrase’s fault, just the folk who tend to use it.
Lifelong NEPA resident (specifically Da Valley) here to present the joys of “heyna.” It’s an all-around useful conversation filler, with a meaning roughly equal to “isn’t it?” or " don’t you think?"
It’s hot today, heyna?
Gonna snow today, heyna or no?
Heyna, am I right?
Or all on it’s own as Da Valley version of “Yeah, right.”
I also tend to hear a lot of the central/western PA-isms like “the electric” for electricity and “yinz” too
I’ve been in/around the military for 25 years, now, and say “Say again?” when I don’t understand something on the phone. I think it has to do with being conditioned to radio communications.
The only regionalisim (or perhaps decadism) of the spoken variety that annoys the daylights out of me is courtesy of my mother. “I am going to go ride bike” or “I rode bike yesterday” If you are going to use bike as a noun, that is fine, but it needs an article. If using an article disturbs you, please use bike as a verb.
I sometimes wonder if is because she also rode horses, and she is trying to differentiate the two. I doubt it; since she never says “did you ride horse this morning?”
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The only regionalisim (or perhaps decadism) of the spoken variety that annoys the daylights out of me is courtesy of my mother. “I am going to go ride bike” or “I rode bike yesterday” If you are going to use bike as a noun, that is fine, but it needs an article. If using an article disturbs you, please use bike as a verb.
I sometimes wonder if is because she also rode horses, and she is trying to differentiate the two. I doubt it; since she never says “did you ride horse this morning?”
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I was reading the latest responses to this thread, and a tech just now came to my door and asked “Dr. Jackmannii, did you set up the cryostat or does it need cleaned?”
I don’t think she realized why I started laughing.
We have a surgeon here who dictates his consults and procedures using the phrase “bless her heart”. “The patient is an 89-year-old woman, bless her heart.”
It comes out sounding like a synonym for “circling the drain”.
Dialects don’t annoy me unless they are fake. Things that do annoy me:
The mistaken idea that a dialect is a reflection of intelligence
The mistaken notion that language must be literally logical to be grammatically correct
People who think they don’t speak a dialect
Failure to capitalize Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western (or North, South, East, and West) when discussing an area of the country: If you are talking about the direction you are going, then you don’t capitalize.
Nonsense statements such as: “I strongly dislike southern accents because I grew up listening to them.” So did millions of other people who find Southern accents pleasant. So that, in itself, cannot be a cause. Maybe you grew up surrounded by ignorant knuckle-draggers who never bathed and who coincidentally used this dialect. The association of the dialect (a neutral characteristic) with these unpleasant characteristics would be understandable.
Actually, it’s sincere 100% of the time. “Bless your heart” is an expression of commiseration with someone’s afflictions or trials and tribulations. It’s just that sometimes the affliction is that they’re an utter and complete asshole.
I don’t like “Do what now?” either. I supervised an employee who responded to my assignments in such a way. I found it disrespectful and slightly passive aggressive. Often the question was something like, “Hey, would you like to go to lunch today?” “Do what now?” I wasn’t telling you what to do; I was asking you out to lunch!
I am also not a fan of “I’ve got to ‘fix’ dinner.” Your dinner isn’t broken. You don’t need to fix it. You are probably going to prepare dinner.
Another regionalism that makes me stabby is “sittin’ there.” A lot of my Ohioan friends and family preface stories this way. “So we were sittin’ there and Sally said to me…”
I have an actual physical reaction when people pronounce, ask or asked like axe or axed. I don’t know if that is a regionalism or a dialect thing. In Northern Virginia, we get a mix of everyone. But it just grates on me.
One more: When I was a CSR for a car rental company in South Florida, I noticed that people from NY often started their calls with, “I rented a car from you people.” I don’t know why, really, but I find “you people” to be terribly rude, confrontational, and adversarial.
Or it could just be I was dealing with pissed off customers 8 hours a day and they were confrontational and adversarial before they even dialed the phone.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and after living in the SF Bay area for several rules for school, I returned home and at one point used the term “hella” to which my friend responded with half-serious outrage. “I’m sorry – hella? Did you just say… hella? You’ve abandoned your roots!”
Some southerners use “mash” as a verb when referring to using a phone’s dial pad - not dial, or hit, or even tap (touch screens). “Mash 867-5309.” A subset of the same group calls this * not a star or asterisk but “the splat”. So you can occasionally hear someone say “mash the splat”.
Casserole seemingly does not exist in Minnesota. They say hot dish. For everything. Tuna/noodle hot dish. Green bean hot dish. Then there’s their pronunciation of karaoke, which they call “cur row key”.