I live in NW Ohio (not sure what part of Ohio you visited) but I haven’t heard “Meal Deal” become “Miiiiildeew”…yet.
Can’t say that I am surprised at your auditory nightmare. I live in a metropolitan area, thus most people here in the city are very nasal. “Washington” becomes “Waaahsheeengton”. But then others say “Waushington” (like myself) It’s funny too, because if you drive just one little mile outside of the city, the rural folk have a slight drawl and you get “Warshington” Must be all that corn.
Anyway, it seems sometimes (any other Ohio dopers care to comment on this?) that in NW Ohio, there are several accents. In a room of twenty NW Ohio natives, you may here about 15 variations on the language.
what about the south africans. dont’ they have that similar ‘british’ accent when they speak ? is this in anyway related to the fact that they were a british colony or something?
I remember staying with friends in Sacramento and trying, by phone, to find a bus to San Francisco airport because my friends couldn’t take me. I finally discovered that Greyhound was the only one that could do this, but was having difficulty understanding the man on the phone. I eventually worked out the times and cost but enquired where to buy the ticket. The man replied ‘at the main bus station’. When I asked where it was he said: “Maam, it’s on 5th and Ayale street”, so I asked him to spell “Ayale”. There was a long pause, then he replied, really slowly, “Maam, that’s capital Ayale (L)”, he must have thought I was really dumb.
Then there was the time when my Aussie friend went to Scotland. They got to some castle, went into the little shop and she asked if they had the morning papers. The woman in the shop replied that they didn’t play in the morning, but if she wanted to hear them, she could every afternoon at 4pm!
And we don’t have shrimps in Australia. Strangely enough, we call 'em prawns too. The shrimp thing was for the US audience. And I’ve NEVER put a prawn on a bbq. Gotta be red meat! So it’d be like this:
Hey Daaave! Chuck some more snags on the barbie…bloody hell… in the esk… no, the big esky ya galah… Yes, under the VB. And chuck us one of those while yer at it. Geez yer a ct of a barman… Ha…fk… just chuck it, don’t peg the fkin’ thing… now it’s gonna fkin’ fizz everywhere. And where didja bung the smokes?
…but I guess that wouldn’t have made the ads very appealing to the Yanks.
