I said "y'all guys" today. It should have been just "y'all." Or "you guys" but no, it was an awkward mixture of dixie and hoosier. I think I need a trip back to the south-land lest I solely use "you guys" or heaven forbid, "soda" for coke.
Yesterday someone asked me if I was from Seattle. Seattle? Really? When we moved to Florida (I was a teenager), my Georgia accent stuck out like a shining, flashing strobe light in the night. At fourteen I didn't want to stick out, so I must have subconsciously quashed my southern accent, however, Chris says it comes back when I get mad because I make "Chris" into a two-syllable word. (So I guess it's a latent accent.)
Thursday, March 15, 2007
I'm Speaking a Strange Mixture of Midwestern and Southern
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3 comments:
Yesterday I had a patient comment that I must not be from around here
(Florida). I asked her why and she replied, "You don't sound like anyone else I've heard." I told her that I have lived in Florida for nearly 20 years. She never told me where she thought I was from. I don't know if she was refering to my watered down southern accent. Maybe she thought I was from Seattle too!
I, too, think a trip back to DIXIE (always caps) would be just the thing you need to renew that genteel Southern honey smooth drawl. dad
I have the fun of occasionally being able to go to the little ranching town where my father grew up - which is in rural Hawai'i. People there still talk primarily in "pidgeon" - a mix of Hawai'ian, English, Philippine, Japanese and Chinese, with words from a few other languages thrown in here and there. I've spent enough time there that I slip into pidgeon right away. No problem.
The problem is that I don't always revert to "regular" English (if there is such a thing) right away. It usually takes a couple weeks before my friends quit asking me what the hell I just said!
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