Who Talks Like This?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

A local newscaster drives me insane with his way of speaking. I don’t know if it’s sloppiness, ignorance, or a regional style. If I knew which it was, I’d be less irritated by it.

He consistently (every single time) changes word order around in this particular way: instead of saying “Germs are everywhere”, which the teleprompter probably displays, he would say “Germs, they are everywhere.” It’s always noun, comma, pronoun, verb–regardless of whether he’s speaking of a person, object, or abstract noun. He’s not pausing after the first word, as someone might who’s providing emphasis or trying to sound like a newspaper headline, he just plows forward like it’s casual speech.

And just in case it provides a regional hint, I’ve noticed a consistent pronunciation oddity I’ve never heard elsewhere: the “a” sound in “call” is said something like “coal”, a long “o” sound.

Does this ring a bell to anyone?

2

I’d really like to hear from linguists or anyone who recognizes this speech pattern.

3

the a/o thing you mention sounds like a Brooklyn accent. The newscaster thing might be compensating for the teleprompter. Perhaps he reads “germs”, then says it, then reads “are everywhere”. It’s too late for him to make it sound like a natural sentence, so he makes a new one- “They are everywhere”. Just WAGs.

4

I don’t think so, on either count. Other than the a/o thing his speech is unaccented. Also, the speech pattern is his natural way of speaking, not an occasional thing.

5

There’s a local news anchor in San Antonio that frequently does the noun, comma, pronoun, verb thing. He also pronounces the word “until” as “untell”. Very distracting.

6

Hmmm, yes…germs…everywhere they are…

</Yoda>