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TarnportI was urging someone younger today to really appreciate the regional accents of the old folks around them, because after tv and other media spread, accents started to die and our generation will pretty much live to see the end of them. I've already outlived many I remember personally. I miss them - perhaps especially the ones that at the time I considered bumpkin.
ikuo@Tarnport This is true even in larger areas. I grew up and still live in a suburb of Boston. As a kid, the vast majority of people I encountered had Boston accents, including classmates, teachers, parents, store clerks, etc. Now, I literally can't even remember the last time I heard a Boston accent... It does make me sad.
@ikuo1000 I was somewhere very remote and very far from Boston just last month when I heard four South Boston accents from a distance of three tables! I literally ran toward them, glass sloshing in hand. What a glory to hear it spoken! So rare now, I know. They were fun too. Obviously.
fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻 ✍️ 🥐 🇵🇷@Tarnport agreed. What's weird is now we have different social media accents across platforms
@fromjason To the Mammoth born!
anilmcoh please taxonomise
Kilroy_Was_HereWhen I was growing up, I liked being around old folks. So I picked up their accent.
As far as I can tell, it's a unique to this area rural accent that'll mostly die with them, and will die with people like me. Between the "I'm from nowhere" kind of accent (think weather men and news anchors) and country music killing off unique rural accents for something that's the same as above, but vaguely southern US.
Talked with an old, old guy at the auto parts store today. Same accent as me.
@kilroy_was_here it's a pleasure to my mind. Something to revel in and cherish. "We say it like this..." is a privilege. I am also from the Southern United States and I've actually read that in general that is the accent that is expanding while most all others are retracting in the usa, but as you put it what they're talking about is a very dilute and averaged "media" southern. It's unlike any old person I ever knew. It may still be regional but it's the corporate media version - and fancy.
"I am also from the Southern United States"
Gonna have to push back on that. Never lived anywhere but Pennsylvania! Though my grandma was from West Virginia so I guess it half counts, lol.
The "vaguely southern" is spreading north, because of country music. I've heard stories from people in Michigan and Wisconsin who say that it's even there!
@kilroy_was_here because of media!? Wow. I've been gone so long. I
But I can believe it. Thank you for clarifying.
But I can believe it. Thank you for clarifying.
LionelBMy grandparents on one side had clear echoes of Norse, which had lasted a thousand years.
German ethnologists studied the accents of British prisoners of war in World War 1. Their recordings are a treasure trove of what existed before the homogenisation.
@lionelb this is remarkable stuff. Thank you for sharing it. 1000 years is a long time in language! Amazing.
Going back to this morning, a water mill channel is called a mill race in many parts of the UK but in the south-west it is called a mill leat. Leat being Norse for race. Odd because the Scandinavian influence was mainly on the East coast.
Ho Ho Ho Like The Slur@Tarnport shout out to the aussie kids who were constantly asked where they were from and had to answer "it's from the BBC"
PeterI miss the now-defunct Australian accent. The drawn-out, mouth half closed strine has all but disappeared over the last 59 years. Strangely enough, that's also the time period when American television swamped the airwaves here.
Every now and then, there's an interview on the news of some old bloke in the bush, and up pops the accent to tickle my ears.
I still slip into it occasionally, and my adult kids look at me like I'm from the Dark Ages 😄😥
@PeterLG I hear you. it's an interesting problem. we are the last generation to carry any trace of those old accents in us. I sympathize!
i was an adopter in late infancy of the east riding flattened vowels, no t's no h's. but I always despised the ee bah gum bumpkin, lampooned as it was by Last of the Summer Wine and other shows. But as diaspora, if I need to ahem *accent* a reaction, i will reach for my 'igh 'unsleh and let all the idioms roll downhill.
Rob van Kan🔻@Tarnport Whenever I am at my 75 yo mother-in-law in a tiny village in Italy, I get the feeling I should record how she speaks. But I know I'll never actually do it.
@edgeofeurope I can't tell you what's best for you, but I can tell you I've never regretted recording anyone. They're gone sooner than we expect. I'm so glad that you've gotten the chance to know her and her accent.
Antifascist Atha Ahuluheluw@Tarnport Oh, a couple of weeks ago, I was thinking the same thing. Our Moluccan elderly here in the Netherlands are gone already, them being the 1st generation who were displaced from Indonesia in the 50s. They had their typical tongue and I really miss hearing that.
@Martranslations I sympathize. I caught myself several times since making this post just trying to sit and hear my grandmas talking!
B Haas@Tarnport @GetzlerChem One of the delightful parts of my experience as an exchange student in Germany 20 years ago was learning a little of the local Swabian dialect. One of my host moms was particularly glad to teach me and lamented that her kids' generation weren't using it much
I also vividly recall talking to a girl (about 10 years old) at a community event in a neighboring town and being almost unable to understand her because she spoke an entirely different dialect. It was *amazing*
@belehaa @GetzlerChem precious memories for sure. This is living. Thank you for sharing.