I have an Idear! Learn how to say IDEA! (Hint: drop the "r")

The BBQ Pit
1

I just heard a few chunks of Howard Dean’s address to the Pacific Council in Los Angeles. It was pretty good. He took many points, set them up, discussed them. I’m not saying he’d last long on the SDMB, but at least he spoke better than most politicians I’ve heard in the past 2 1/2 years. At least, until he spoke of his ideas. Well, not ideas per se. IDEARS.

He wasn’t the sharpest public speaker I’ve heard. But he made several good points. It was his IDEARS that scared me.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m from Minnesota. I say such travesties to the English language as “Wanna come with?” and “You Betcha”. But I am not currently running for office.

I do run to my office occasionally, but only when I need to fart in private, or when I hear my phone ringing.

But as a normal, every day, beer drinking, pickup driving, (sans flag) office farting, red blooded Merican male, I found myself cringing every time I heard the man who’s goal is to be the leader of the free world telling me that he had an* idear.*

If a man told me that he had an idear on what bait to use, I’d listen. If a man told me that he had an idear on why I’m on my second high pressure hose on my power steering pump, I’d take a listen.

But when a man makes valid point after point on the current administrations failings on foreign and domestic policy, I want to get a firm understanding on what his policies, agendas, and solutions are to the complexities of today’s world. I sure as hell don’t want to hear his idears.

Mr. Dean. Please repeat after me.

Eye-Dee-YA.
I-d-ea
Idea
Eye-Dee-Ya.
No “r”.

2

You think he sounds bad, you should live in this state!

Seriously, though, I don’t really understand what it is about regional accents that has people so bothered.

3

Ah yes, New England Migrating “R” Syndrome. See the deal is that basically the “R” factor needs to be stabilised. Therefore, all the "r"s that are dropped for words such as “park,” “here,” “car” and the like are added to words that don’t need them-such as “idea,” “data” etc. “Datar Entry” was my favourite phrase when I worked in Peabody. I find it charming (chah-ming) myself but then again, I have some New England roots.

4

I’m just trying to figure out where the hell the “r” comes from.
I? Nope.
D? Nope.
E? Nope.
A? Nope.

Put them together, suddenly it’s idear.

I don’t have a problem with regional accents. I just think that those who are running for national office should learn pronunciation. Be it “Idea” or “Nuclear”

5

I don’t have a problem with regional accents. I just think that those who are running for national office should talk good like me.

6

I knew this one New Englander who had a korea working in North Career. . .

7

Around here the new thing(or maybe old thing) is to pronounce human as “uman”. The H is not silent!!! This is not just happening with the people you meet on the street, I’ve heard multiple local talk radio people pronouncing it this way.

8

Spelling has jack shit to do with pronounciation, you realize. Hell, in the word pronounciation itself, ‘noun’ is ‘nun’ and ‘tion’ is ‘shun’. Where the hell does the ‘sh’ come from? It’s T-I, ferchrissakes!

9

Same place the “r” comes from in ‘colonel’.

10

Hmmmmmmm,

Maybe you could try to warsh his mouth out with soap. Whaddya think of that ideal? :smiley:

11

Adding on, because I know someone will correct me…

Spelling does correspond to pronounciation in most respects, yes. But spelling does not determine pronounciation.

12

Sign seen at a park in Virginia:

NO DOGS
ALLOWED
IN THE
PICNIC AREAR

13

Spelling has more to do with pronunciation than you think.

14

Spanish?

(Colonal is a derivation of the Spanish Coronal, from the ceremonial crown - corona - high ranking officers would wear).

15

I thought the "r"s migrated to other parts of the country. Like when a Bostoner “pahks” his “cah”, causing a Texan to “warsh” his car. Or something like that. It was in an OMNI magazine several years ago. (BTW I’m from New England too.)

Those 4 letters are an indication that the pronounciation rules of the English language are shit. :wink:

16

When I worked reservations for Budget Rent A Car it always made me laugh when they wanted to reserve a car In Tamper, Florider.

:stuck_out_tongue:

17

Doesn’t surprise me this is a New England thing - it’s an English thing as well, as far as my experience goes (not necessarily Brit, though). Turn on BBC, and you’ll hear the public’s idears about the latest Madonnar album, and so forth.

18

New Englanders do this because they inherited it from the British. If they follow a word ending with a vowel sound with a word beginning with a vowel sound (i.e., “data entry”) they add an R in between. Haven’t you ever heard a Brit do this? As the Beatles once sang:

I don’t like it either, but we just have to accept it. We damn Yankees have no business lecturing the British in English pronunciation.

19

Beaten to the punch, I see.

Another thing that irks me about British pronunciation is the word “figure.” They say “figger.” It just sounds somehow… semi-literate. Yet, it’s their language.

20

They do? Can’t say I ever heard that particular one. Fig-yoor is more like it.