29 April 2009
PNW Accent
The totally addictive TV Tropes site has an entry on various American accents. Here's their blurb for my accent:
"Pacific Northwest: Basically an entire area of Newscaster English, with a twist. People from this area do, actually, have a unique accent if listeners pay attention. They merge vowels, resulting in the following words being indistinguishable: cot = caught; caller = collar; Don = Dawn; Led=Lead; often Full=Fool. Placenames and other special vocabulary also get unique treatment. Words like "geoduck" ("gooeyduck"), "Puyallup" ("pyew-ALL-up"), "Issaquah" ("iss-SOCK-wah") or "Pend Oreille" ("pond oray") are some examples. Except for "Pend Oreille", these are all loan-words from Salish tribes of native Americans (Pend Oreille is a loaner, too, but from the French fur traders who used it to refer to a tribe in the area). Another case is Oregon, being the historical name of the entire area and the name of one the major states. Natives call it Or-Y-Gun while non-natives unfamiliar will call it Or-E-gone. This has lead to bumperstickers with ORYGUN being popular in the region. Stereotype: Eco-friendly, distinctly laid-back."
My first thought upon reading this was: caught=cot, caller=collar, Don=Dawn, led=lead.....of course! How else can they be pronounced?? I had my linguist, grew-up-all-over-the-U.S. best friend speak her versions of "caught" and "cot" for me, and I can hear a difference, but I can't replicate it.
There are some goofs, though. Full=fool? No. Not even close. And their phonetic spellings of local place names aren't great. "iss-SOCK-wah"? I say something closer to "ISS-a-cwah".
On a totally different note, I wish I had bought an "Orygun" bumpersticker when I lived in Eugene. Those are cool.
"Pacific Northwest: Basically an entire area of Newscaster English, with a twist. People from this area do, actually, have a unique accent if listeners pay attention. They merge vowels, resulting in the following words being indistinguishable: cot = caught; caller = collar; Don = Dawn; Led=Lead; often Full=Fool. Placenames and other special vocabulary also get unique treatment. Words like "geoduck" ("gooeyduck"), "Puyallup" ("pyew-ALL-up"), "Issaquah" ("iss-SOCK-wah") or "Pend Oreille" ("pond oray") are some examples. Except for "Pend Oreille", these are all loan-words from Salish tribes of native Americans (Pend Oreille is a loaner, too, but from the French fur traders who used it to refer to a tribe in the area). Another case is Oregon, being the historical name of the entire area and the name of one the major states. Natives call it Or-Y-Gun while non-natives unfamiliar will call it Or-E-gone. This has lead to bumperstickers with ORYGUN being popular in the region. Stereotype: Eco-friendly, distinctly laid-back."
My first thought upon reading this was: caught=cot, caller=collar, Don=Dawn, led=lead.....of course! How else can they be pronounced?? I had my linguist, grew-up-all-over-the-U.S. best friend speak her versions of "caught" and "cot" for me, and I can hear a difference, but I can't replicate it.
There are some goofs, though. Full=fool? No. Not even close. And their phonetic spellings of local place names aren't great. "iss-SOCK-wah"? I say something closer to "ISS-a-cwah".
On a totally different note, I wish I had bought an "Orygun" bumpersticker when I lived in Eugene. Those are cool.
Labels: random silliness
# posted by mamurd @ 9:54 PM 
Comments:
<< Home
I think it's closer to OR-a-gun, and our eastern friends pronounce it or-ee-GONE.
And PEW-al-up, like a church pew.
And you are right about full, rhymes with pull, and fool, rhymes with tool.
Post a Comment
And PEW-al-up, like a church pew.
And you are right about full, rhymes with pull, and fool, rhymes with tool.
<< Home
