I am fascinated by words and the way people use them. Here is a dialect map that provides a look at how words are pronounced and the words and phrases that are used for things in different parts of the country. There are some words and phrases that show up almost everywhere and others that exist just in pockets. There are a few that show up in a pocket on the east coast, another pocket around Pennsylvaia/Ohio, and then again in Wisconsin or Minnesota. It would be fascinating to trace the groups that use those expressions and the westward migration that very likely resulted in that distribution. (This is the genealogist/historian talking.)
HT: Cyberbrethren
4 comments:
I was amazed that there were more similarities than I thought between my native Nevadan (a as in sat) dialect and the Indiana dialect, but I am also wondering where they got these answers.
When we first moved here, practically the first thing we were told is that it is new HAVEN not NEW Haven (this is NOT what the survey says)....the survey says people here say "CREEK" and that Hoosiers do not know what a drive-thru liquor store is
HELLO are we driving through the same towns and listening to the same people??????
Come hang out Northeast Indiana for a while
I think that probably some of the pronunciation overlaps are caused by mobility. That said, it's definitely New HAVEN.
But everyone I know says creek. I never heard of a crick until I moved to Kansas. And I don't think I've seen a drive-thru liquor store unless I just haven't noticed!
Having moved around a bit in the midwest, the thing that is interesting to me is that *you* talk more like people from Indiana than people from Chicago or Wisconsin do most of the time. :)
Jane - As a fellow genealogist, I'm fascinated by dna testing that tells you you're 80% northern european, 10% Mediterranean and 8 % hillbilly and 2% native american.
When I get a couple hundred dollars that I don't know what to do with, I'm going to do that.
Yes, I find the DNA testing fascinating, too.
My genealogist self really needs to get over to your neck of the woods and do some research.
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