Quote:
Quote by: HelioPrime  um...um.. the word um seems to be added into every speech around there. Close as I've been to Canada is maine, where they seem to use effort to add an "H" into every other word....Lobstah...Cahr....Mahrket...shohp... |
Actually, that isn't adding a "h", it is dropping an "r". It is typical of many regional accents in the U.S. - the drawls of the deep south and the far west (which is probably derived from the deep south). Most of those regional accents also add an "r" where there is none in some cases. Imagine a grizzled old cowboy sitting around a campfire
According to a TV weatherman from Boston when I was growing up, I lived in Montaner, the Capital being Helener. My wife still talks about the sofer in spite of the years of relentless teasing by our sons and their friends. They still laugh about it and it is still a sofer. Of course, a patton is a guide for sewing while Pattern was a famous general.
I grew up as a Montana city boy born of Iowans and surrounded by a western drawl. Thus I found I was able to assume that drawl at will. When I was teaching in Massachusetts, my students thought I had a funny accent, even though I could take on their accent if I wished. I fact, I spoke with a Havahd accent. Here in Texas, I can talk like a good old boy if I want. The differences are mostly the rhythm of speech, dropping and insertion of appropriate consonants (mostly drop or add an "r"), and the correct choice of regional, meaningless fillers, eh?, uh, etc. Such fillers had the result that English speakers thought the "Ugh" had some meaning in native american languages.
So to correct your non-observant comment. Lobstah is correct, cahr should be cah, mahrket should be mahket, shohp is more like shawp. Besides that, idea is ide-er, sofa is sofer, Woburn is Wubun. Of course, not only New Englanders, but also southerners and westerners have "idiers."
Believe it or not, regional American accents are the oldest pronounciations of English that still exist. The English have changed, while the U.S. not (very much). In fact, the accents of New England are recognized as the oldest in the English language, and they are disappearing.