Dialects, got to love them

[Deere Dude]

We moved from WI to remote TN 8 years ago. What was most memorable to me was the first church service we visited/attended. I swear I coud not understand a word anyone said for the whoe hour. Everyone sounded like they had lazy tongue. Now my hearing is getting worse which doesn't help matters.
It is embarassing sometimes. I was talking to an aquaintance a few months ago and he was speaking right at me from 4 feet away. I had him repeat the sentence 3 times and finally told him to just text me.

A few years ago I was talking to a Indian from India on the phone. Finally after 5 minutes of not understanding his sentence structure I had to excuse myself.

One other time snowbirding in southern FL I was talking to a contractor and he was talking about all the coal they have in FL. I never saw any mines but just went along with it. Finally it dawned on me he was saying coral, not meaning coal/

 

[Jstpssng]

I tried to place an order over the phone once, long before the internet. I gave off the part number I needed several times; every time she read it back to me wrong. I finally gave up and cancelled the order.
She said that she couldn't understand my accent. I don't have an accent, everybody else does!

 

[dadiehl]

The coal region of Pennsylvania has a language onto its own. I live maybe 45 minutes away and have no idea what some of their short cuts translate out to. An old Sgt. We had here from there would bounce over to it and it sounded almost foreign. He called it Shendo-Speak.

 

[k0ua]

What else is it called James?

Parking Lot

 

[Sigarms]

I have worked with so many people that have accents I am pretty good at understanding them all. Ironically probably the hardest for me is Louisiana deep swamp stuff….but my wife understands it perfectly! She lived there 8 years when she was younger.

Trained a guy in Mobile and Pensacola who was from Louisiana who was Cajun. First time talking to him on the phone without meeting him, I called my boss and told him we may have issues because I really didn't understand a word he was saying over the phone. It wasn't until the 2rd or 3rd day where I started getting more familiar with what he was talking about (and I knew he was trying to make it easy for me). I knew it wasn't just me as when we'd go out to eat the waitresses were having some issues as well LOL

I've found southerns who have a heavy dialect who talk fast I have a hard time sometimes as well. One guy I've known for 15 years now, and on the phone, I still have a hard time with him from time to time. However, company he works for I know about 15 "local" employees who I've worked with on a regular basis, and even the company employees tell me it's not just me trying to understand him over the phone when he talks fast LOL I have one co worker like that as well.

 

[Sigarms]

He called it Shendo-Speak.

No different than Pine Grove but still different LOL

Shendo speak refers to the town of Shenadoah As the locals would say "Shendo dah fook" That said, Shenadoah isn't as bad as Frackville or St. Clair IMO.

 

[cqaigy2]

Speaking of dialects and accents, i was working with a crew made up of a group from the Philippines. It took me a while but i got pretty good at understanding, mostly, what was being said, and getting the point across what needed to be done. One day, I was talking to one of the crew, when their head person walked up asked how it was going with his crew, told him i was starting to pickup on the accent of the English they were using. He kinda laughed and said what accent? I said that last guy i was talking to, he said that last guy you were talking to you only used one English word the rest was Tagalog, i was, 'say what??'. I said, "Ha ha, nice try", he said 'no not joking, he said this crew spoke the least English he'd seen in a while.

One of the funniest, to me anyway, was when my neighbor's were talking of when they rented a largish catamaran in New Zealand and decided to go into port to pick up supplies and such. They radioed, the Harbour Master and got directed to "park" next to the para vessel. So of course a para vessel should be pretty unusual and easy to identify, except nothing there looked like a para vessel. After a bit of back and forth with the Harbour Master, the New Zealander, said, your vessel uses wind for propulsion, ones that don't use wind, are para(power) vessels.

 

[k0ua]

I have been an Amateur radio operator for 50 years, and I have heard just about every version of English there is to be had out in the wide world. I can usually zero in on the various accents and the different words and phrases fairly quickly. And of course there are Europeans in various countries that speak English better than a lot of us here on this side of the pond.

 

[fried1765]

Couple years ago, never forget down around Atlanta for technical training with some customers. Class ended on Friday and there was a bunch of us from my neck of the woods. One guy brought his wife down, and they were staying overnight so his wife could check out some of the shopping. Another guy was staying for the state fire, which had me perplexed, so I asked him where they were getting the wood for a state fire, and we both looked dumbfounded, and then had a good laugh when I realized (actually mentioned about another "NC local" he meant state fair.

Last week, I met my new direct supervisor, who flew down from Boston. We're talking with another employee (born and bred in NC) and my supervisor starts asking me about pots. I'm thinking to myself what the heck does pots have anything to do with our business, and I look at my co worker, and he has the same kind of expression I do. Turns out my superviosr was talking about "parts".

I use to live on Cape Cod as a kid. Lost that accent a LONG time ago. Genearlly can pick up a New York city (or surrounding area) or Jersey accent even if someone has lived in NC as long as I have (20 years).

Made me think about how quick one can lose or gain an accent, and at what age plays a variable in the equation.

I took my boss out to eat with a customer, I was going to do Mexican, but my boss mentioned isn't NC known for BBQ? Dawned on me he wanted to eat "local". I've been in NC way to long I guess as it was interesting having our customer explain the menu to the guy from New England and the things I take for granted now (BBQ slaw is NOT like cole slaw as you'd expect it from up North as one example and my boss mentioned that they know how to make sweet tea up north ).

I grew up on Cape Cod, and am retired there now.
I left the Cape at 22 for USN flight training in Pensacola.
When I came back 18 months later my mother said I
"talked funny".

Though I did not have a Southern twang, I had lost my New England accent.
I am 80 now, and spent nearly 40 years listening to the accents of worldwide aircraft control center operators.
My Cape Cod accent is still long gone.

 

[Sigarms]

I left the Cape at 22 for USN flight training in Pensacola.
When I came back 18 months later my mother said I
"talked funny".

A friend lived in California for the first 25 years of her life, moved to NC with her husband (who is a native NC'er), she has been here for about 20 years, and anytime she goes back to visit her family in California, they all tell her that she has a southern accent now. I've know this woman for a good 10 years, and not once did I ever detect a southern dialect on her.

If anything, she reminds me of an italian because she's always talking with her hands LOL