Regional Speech

[David77]

"Southernism".
Remember:
"Y'all" is singular.
"All y'all" is plural.
"All y'all's" is plural possessive.

Get used to hearing, "You ain't from around here, are you?

But don't be worried that you don't understand anyone. They don't
understand you, either.

[David77]

"Southernism".
Remember:
"Y'all" is singular.
"All y'all" is plural.
"All y'all's" is plural possessive.

Get used to hearing, "You ain't from around here, are you?

But don't be worried that you don't understand anyone. They don't
understand you, either.

[David77]

Trailscout enlightens us;
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>A tad more than 400 years ago, the "powers that be" made a stupid mistake: they dropped the word,
"Ye" (which used to be second person plural) from the English language. As in: "God rest ye merry gentlemen".
Realizing their mistake, folks set about to create a new word to take its place.
Southerners, being either more astute than other Americans or simply with more time on their hands decided to take "you all" and contract it to "y'all".

Later, our dim-witted (or perhaps simply too busy to think clearly) Yankee counterparts decided to coin the word, "Youse" to achieve the same result, but it also meant second person singular, the same as the word "you" does in more formal speech, so they were no better off for the change.

Not to be outdone, the Appalachian mountain folk just to my north coined the word, "you'uns", a contraction of "you ones". It's a bit awkward, but so typical of the way mountain folk patch things together their own way.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Trailscout]

David,

Perhaps English has been set adrift for 1000 years. Since 1066 and those dastardly Norman French arrrived to impose their language upon the hapless natives.

If Icelanders can still read their sagas without benefit of translation, why can't we read Beowulf?

It would take a generation or two, but we could restore Old English to everyday speech, all public transactions, court proceedings, roadside signs, etc. Let's go for it!
...............................................
Beowulf Scyldinga, leof leodcyning,longe ?rage folcum gefr?ge (f?der ellor hwearf, aldor of earde), o???t him eft onwoc heah healfdene; heold ?enden lifde, gamol ond gu?reouw, gl?de Scyldingas.

[David77]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Trailscout:
David,

Perhaps English has been set adrift for 1000 years. Since 1066 and those dastardly Norman French arrrived to impose their language upon the hapless natives. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I am almost certain that during a lecture on the English language, we were told that after the Normans conquered England in 1066, William the Conquoror, who then became King of England, forbid the English to learn or speak French, as he didn't want his soldiers to be able to communicate with the English girls as this would "contaminate" the French.

[namedun]

um, really, what would be the point of restoring ye olde english? Not only would that be a chore, but it's even less efficient than modern english.
And on a side note, most canadians do not have an accent any more different than what you would hear on cnn (which is basically no accent at all). Exceptions to this could include (don't take me for an expert) Manitobans. However, Cape Bretoner's, from the north island in Nova Scotia, and Newfoundlander's to a much greater extent, exhibit a highly mixed accent (for anyone who has seen the movie Snatch, a Newfoundlander sounds like a "pik-e", while Cape Bretoner's can be more easily understood).

Namedun

[Naturist Mark]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by namedun:

And on a side note, most canadians do not have an accent any more different than what you would hear on cnn (which is basically no accent at all).Namedun <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>eh? I don't know aboot that...

[namedun]

typical ignorance

[Boreas]

I moved to northern BC from southern Ontario (I grew up in London) and have discovered that Canada does indeed have more "accents" or speech patterns than I had thought. For instance, if you are from near Toronto, you of course do not pronounce the second "t" in Toronto...sort of (not exactly) TorONno. I discovered that folks from Vancouver pronounce their city's name Vanv-CUE-ver...kind of like the word cue added on to Van and er. I also noticed that people tend to say "hey" here in place of the allegedly Canadian "eh" (The Brits probably got us started on that one) I guess when you grow up next to a country like the US and all its colourful accents, you don't notice the ones in your own country. BTW...folks in parts of Ontario and probably other parts of Canada also have the plural of "you" which is of course "yous".

Although my french is very pathetic, I can tell a Quebecois from a New Brunswicker from an Ontarian by the french accent as well. And there is no such thing as one Newfoundland accent...there is an accent for each region of that province. Very cool

It is interesting the way a language can develop isn't it.

[fred950]

Another piont to concider: "old" English (as before the influence of William the Conquorer) resemles modern German more than it resembles modern Egnlish.

[missouriboy]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by naturistmark1:
eh? I don't know aboot that... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I noticed that too, the first time I conversed with some Canadians. After thinking about it, I surmised that perhaps they're correct. Don't we Americans pronounce "you" to rhyme with the Canadian pronunciation of "about?" And don't we pronounce "about" as "abowt?" Is that really correct?

I couldn't say that either of us is right or wrong. Ah, the difference of regional voice!

[David77]

Friends in Minnesota sometimes end their questions with "Eh?" Such as, "Are you going, eh?"

I have noticed on British TV programs that they frequently end their statements with, "Isn't it?", which is said in more of an affirmitive mode than a questioning mode.

[Trailscout]

On the European continent, the closest language to English is not German, not even the Platt Deutsch of northern Germany.

Our closest cousins are a small group of people who speak a little-known language called "Fries" (pronounced like: "freeze").

A few years ago I met one of the native speakers of this language.

Where do these language cousins come from?
The Frisian Islands! A chain that runs off the coast of the Netherlands, Germany and part of Denmark.

I was amazed at how much her language sounds like English, even after 1000 years of separation.

[David77]

Stating the well known and accepted: Although, Latin is not considered a spoken language anymore, many English words have Latin roots. Other European languages have Latin roots, such as Spanish, Portugese, French and, of course, Italian.

Some of our words have Greek roots (maybe 5% ?) and our English language has maybe 10% German words or German roots, I have heard.

I have a friend who advocates, and even teaches, Esperanto, which is an artificially "manufactured" language used world-wide by a moderate number of persons who think in "international" terms about communication. He communicates all over the world with persons who know Esperanto.
See;
http://www.esperanto.com/esper1.html

[Trailscout]

The difference between English and the Romance languages (French, Romansch, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, Gallego, Portuguese, Romanian and Italian) (and maybe one or two subdialects I've missed) is that the core vocabulary of English has Germanic roots. The 5% is a bit misleading since it does not account for frequency of usage. Try cursing in English without using Germanic-derived words!

The Romance languages were more thoroughly derived from Latin, although corrupted by influence from the native tongues of the indigenous peoples, loan words from other languages, corruption of Latin due to the sheer passage of time and isolation following the breakup of the Empire.

I met an Esperanto enthusiast last year and he
demonstrated to me that it is not entirely artificial and not entirely a global language. It is merely a simplified grammar derived primarily from Indo-European tongues.

I admire the effort that went into it. Indeed, if I were devising a language for commerce and communication, I suppose I would have done something similar, but I can't work up much enthusiasm to learn it. There just isn't a "critical mass" of speakers to win me over.

[David77]

Trailscout,
Your statements regarding the English language seems to be rather consistent with the information on the following three web sites. I bow (but not bow and scrape, both) to you. I guess both my Latin and English teachers, years ago, may have over-emphasized the extent of influence of Latin on the English language; but apparently the Germanic languages may have had a greater influence over the centuries.

However, the third reference listed below, states,
"Present-day English is approximately 50% Germanic (English and Scandinavian) and 50% Romance (French and Latin)".

http://www.woe.edu.pl/1998/5_98/history.html

http://www.m-w.com/about/look.htm

http://www.fiu.edu/~hastyd/englhist.html

[gamblefish]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by namedun:
(for anyone who has seen the movie Snatch, a Newfoundlander sounds like a "pik-e", while Cape Bretoner's can be more easily understood).

Namedun <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Oh you bass turd!
I freakin' hate pik-es!!!!!!!!!
This will get messy...