Yanny or Laurel?

I still haven't heard it nor will I.
Stuff like this drives me nuts
and makes me want to hurt
myself and others.. It's the
Cardiff Giant crap in a different
form.

Some guy in the 1860's built a
giant man out of available
material and buried it in a field.
Then he dug it up and alerted
the media and it was a huge
sensation. He had discovered
an alien race! He took it on tour
and people paid to see it.

Even after it was completely exposed
that it was a total hoax, and they
all knew it, people for years continued
to pay to see the stupid thing.

That's what this yanny 'who gives a
crap' story is. It's a media driven non
event that the suckers always fall
for, and always will. All my life I've
strived not to be one of 'them'..

Quote: Pacomartin

Your daughters grew up thousands of miles from where you grew up. What dialect do you speak, and what dialect do your daughters speak?

Are you asking me? I heard the exact same piece at the same time on the Today show as my younger daughter. She is absolutely in the Yanni camp but heard the same thing I did. She has lived with me her whole life and the older daughter most of her life, until she went to college. If it matters, I grew up 250 miles away in Orange County, California.

Any what dialect do I speak? You know I speak American English and some very awful Spanish that is often mocked, although kindly not by you.

Quote: Wizard

Any what dialect do I speak? You know I speak American English and some very awful Spanish that is often mocked, although kindly not by you.

American English is too broad for one dialect. It's also hardwired by early adolescence, so even though your daughter lived with you her whole life, you spoke English for over two decades before she was born.

There are 8 major dialects of English in Northern America, as outlined on the map I posted.
1. Canada
2. Northern New England
3. The North
4. Greater New York City
5. The Midland
6. The South
7. North Central
8. The West

If you lived in Orange County until college you speak Dialect #8, "the west". Baltimore would be the "Atlantic Midland" subdialect of #5 "The Midland". If your daughter lived there through adolescence until a certain age she probably speaks English slightly different than you.



Dialects can be subtle. You often don't know precisely what is different, just that the English sounds different. Sylvester Stallone had to give his famous Philadelphia character, Rocky, more of a New York accent to make it crystal clear to a general audience that he was speaking white urban.

A true Philly patois would be Chris Matthews.

The map must have been created in the US. Residents of Ontario do not speak the same as those in Western Canada and BC is different than the prairies. Map puts us all in the same group.

What are those two tiny areas? It looks like one is Charleston SC. I've never been to Charleston so can't comment. Hard to tell where the other one is. I can say there is a Baltimore accent that is hard to perceive until you've been there a while. It's kind of nasal with southern influences but not as strong as say an accent from rural Georgia.

I've always thought the Alaska accent, and Sarah Palin is a perfect example, sounds very Canadian.

Quote: Wizard

What are those two tiny areas? It looks like one is Charleston SC. I've never been to Charleston so can't comment. Hard to tell where the other one is. I can say there is a Baltimore accent that is hard to perceive until you've been there a while. It's kind of nasal with southern influences but not as strong as say an accent from rural Georgia.

I've always thought the Alaska accent, and Sarah Palin is a perfect example, sounds very Canadian.

Put your mouse over the map, and click "Open in a new tab", then go to the tab and you can blow up the map.

There is a minor dialect circle around Charleston SC and one around Savannah GA. In Charleston "pin" and "pen" are pronounced the same way, and Savannah they are not.

There is a wikipedia article on the Baltimore Accent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_accent

The Gullah are African Americans who live in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of Georgia and South Carolina, in both the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. They developed a creole language, the Gullah language, and a culture rich in African influences that makes them distinctive among African Americans. Historically, the Gullah region extended from the Cape Fear area on North Carolina's coast south to the vicinity of Jacksonville on Florida's coast. Today, the Gullah area is confined to the Georgia and South Carolina Lowcountry. The Gullah people and their language are also called Geechee, which may be derived from the name of the Ogeechee River near Savannah, Georgia.

The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million African-Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West that occurred between 1916 and 1970. The dialect of urban English was greatly affected. Baltimore received a lot of people in the Great Migrations

For Baltimore region demographic percentages. Baltimore city is not part of Baltimore County unlike most of the USA where cities are parts of counties
White alone, not Hispanic or Latino, percent ---------------&------------------------ Population, Census, April 1, 2010
27.7% Baltimore City 620,961
58.1% Baltimore County 804,911

According to the 2011 census, English is the mother tongues of 56.9% of Canadians, French of 21.3% of Canadians. Total is 78.2%.
English is the Language Spoken at Home for the 81.2% if the Population 5 Years and Over in the USA 2000.

Quote: kenarman

The map must have been created in the US. Residents of Ontario do not speak the same as those in Western Canada and BC is different than the prairies. Map puts us all in the same group.

The map I posted earlier was the most scholarly one I could find. The Telsur Project is a survey of linguistic changes in progress in North American English, supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is the creator of the Atlas of North American English [ANAE], (formerly, the Phonological Atlas of North America).

Here are alternative maps that just cover the USA.

My bro in law is from here but
has lived in Canada for the last
30 years. When he talks, at the
end of every sentence he says
'ay?' Like they did on SCTV in
the 80's.

I found this very annoying. I told
him about 15 years ago if he
would like it if I ended every
sentence with 'ya know?'. Like
a HS dropout from the OH/WVa
border would do.

He thought about it and agreed
and he doesn't do it anymore
when he's here.

Quote: Evenbob

. When he talks, at the end of every sentence he says 'ay?

I have friends from Western Canada. I used to think it was required to pronounce the period at the end of a sentence. I swear to god, they don't even hear it.

Quote: Evenbob

My bro in law is from here but
has lived in Canada for the last
30 years. When he talks, at the
end of every sentence he says
'ay?'

I've mainly noticed this only from Canada's central provinces, especially Alberta. In Vancouver, Toronto, or Montreal you will rarely hear an "eh."