IOW, pretend you’re firing off an email to your closest friend, or talking on the phone to that person. You’re planning on going out tonight to dinner and a movie and then to meet some more friends at the local drinking establishment afterwards.
Remember, proper english out the window, how would your end of the conversation sound? I know it’s hard to project how you talk by typing it, but I just want to see what words you’d use and how you structure sentences when you’re not Doping.
I’ll start;
Especially interested in the Brits, Aussies and Southern USA’ers.
Yo D… Decapitators, tonight at the Ridge. Gorefest, face-rippin’… cool stuff, man. We can hit the bar by your place, check out the hottie, maybe get some food. About 8-ish the Other D and the rest’ll be at Water Street doing the usual. Get ready to put on the game face, dude. I’ll hit the store and grab a pack on my way to your place. See ya at 5.
My ‘native’ dialect is Southwestern US (Tucson, AZ). Also, I’m half Italian by blood, and picked up a lot of the… er, directness. Some of my less-direct friends claim I’m bossy. I don’t see it. If they don’t want to do whatever it is I’m suggesting, they can tell me to shove it. What’s the problem?
I’m not sure if it applies, but growing up in Mexican immigrant country also left its mark… I tend to use Spanish without realizing it from time to time, interspersed with English. Imagine replacing one word of a sentence at random, you’ve got the idea.
Argh. It makes sense, really it does. If you’ve lived in the Southwest, you’ll know what I mean.
My idiolect is somewhere between Educated Australian and Received Standard English, so it doesn’t have any real extremes in it. I lived in Leeds between the ages of 2 and 9, so I understand West Yorkshire very well, but I’m not good at speaking it. Similarly, I understand Broad Australian just fine, but only speak it by pushing my vowels in the appropriate directions, and dropping a few phrases like “fair dinkum”.
(But I do know that I have a bit of regional dialect in me, because a person that I’d just met in Australia saidthat he couldn’t pick whether my accent was from Leeds or Leicester. Uncanny, because my mother came from Leicester, though I have only visited that city.)
Actually, pretty nearly everything I write is in my “speaking voice”. Real-life friends who also know me on message boards say it makes them laugh to read my posts, because my “voice” is so clear in them. I dunno. I just type what I think, and try not to filter it too much. Sometimes, this works…sometimes it gets me in trouble!
As for dialect, I was born and raised near Chicago, but “Chicago accents” in movies and tv seem just as strange to me as they do to you. Newscaster-speak is what sounds “normal” to me. I do have a tendancy to drop the “g” off on “ing” endings, and to make internal “t"s into “d” sounds: “budder” for “butter” or 'lader” for “later”. But “sahsage” sounds harsh and ugly. I put “sawsage” on my pizza, thank you. A “pin” goes into fabric, and a “pen” is what you write with. My Aunt Diana shares her title with picnic insects, however.
Hey… off to the cinema tonight to see There’s Something More About Mary. Looks like crap, but it might be good for a laugh or two. You up for it? Going to stop by Maccas on the way, and after we might stop by Flannos for a drink. Give me a ring and let me know if you’re coming. Screenings at 6:30, 8:15, 9:25… thinking about catching the second one, but we’re easy.
Please note: “Maccas” is McDonalds. “Flannos” is a local pub, Flanagan’s Irish Pub (I think they’re a chain).
Hagga Slagga! Yibba wanna gibba slibba flibbidy-bouwwe?!?!?! I hibba da moovie Da Dacabbidy-slabbas gonna pibbidy ribba! Yibba, flih-floh-flagga! Lobba saw blibbidy-glibba and dis one glibba hibba face ribbidy dibbah!!! Yahw diggity! First, we’ll swibba dibba by Piddlee diddle’n’ grab a gribba, and lookada sweebow wibbatress that fragga hagga.
Around 20 or sigga, Dibba and Libba and the ribba dees clibba gonna be on Wibbidy Stribba gettin’ shit faced, so sagga ragga dib clegga de rap a sweed dow!
A mongrel of generic middle-class southern England with a healthy dose of traditional Suffolk accent:
Hi, yerright? Fancy going to Decapitators? Supposed to be a good larf, stupid loads of blood’n’stuff. I’ll come by bout five. Simon’n’alan are getting wankered down Water Street later, could join them, see if the fit barmaid is working at the Bell. I’ll get a bottle in on the way to stock up.
'“Hey whadya say we go to the movies tonight, sposta be a couple good ones, your pick. First we’ll go somewhere and get a bite. After the movie it’s off to the tavvy to tie one on”
Charlie? Doug calling, howz things up yer way?..Zat right? Well, we got quite a little snow here last two-three days, but nothin’ on you guys…I hear there’s a foot and a half of it up by Grinnell…Hey now, reason I called is I heard yer all alone this weekend…Ohhhh brother, I’m sorry to hear it. She doin’ OK other’n’at?..Well’at’s good. Anywho, what say we get together and visit, mebbe knock off a pitcher or two?..Ya, Saturday’ll work fer me…Say 2, 2:30?..Aww right great. Tellya what, I’ll give a yell and we’ll figger out a place…Aww right Charlie you bet!..'k seeyabye.
Amazing, Captain. The one person in the entire Anglophone diaspora with perfect unaccented speech devoid of mannerisms, regionalisms or quirks, and he’s right here on the Dope.
I’ll try to translate this into TronnaSpeak, or at least Southern Ontarian. Let’s see…
“Hey Don, wanna godua movie t’nite? I heard thet Decapitaders is playing at th’ Pairamount. Yep, killer movie, lotsa bludd-n-guts en this one guy getsiz face ripped off, kewl! Firslets pass by thet pub by yer place t’ get some food en check out the hoddie thet works there. Roun’ 8 er so, Derril en Lee en the rest of thoze clowns er gonna be in th’ Entertainment District gett’n shitfaced, so…”
…okay. I don’t drink, so I have no idea what the current slang is here. Anyways…
“I’ll hit the Elsie on the way t’ yer place t’ grab a sixpack, meet you at five.”
I’m sure Spoons will be along to add some interesting comments.
