Linguistic question

[lidaker]

Why do Americans say "ideaR" and "ideaRs", instead of pronouncing the words as they are spelled? It seems kind of unnecessary to add a sound that isn't there. Do all Americans pronounce them this way? Do you have more words in which you add funny sounds?

[A18]

Actually, I say idea.

IdeaR is northeastern talk.

[lidaker]

Oh. I guess that's true because I heard it from John Kerry.

Do they say more funny things in the northeast? Can Dan Rather be characterized as having a typical northeastern dialect?

[bgwah]

I've never heard it pronounced idear. Its I-DEE-YA!

[Dave from Michigan]

I've never heard it pronounced idear. Its I-DEE-YA!

thats how we pronounce it here in Michigan

[YRABNNRM]

I pronounce it I-DEE-YA...

[A18]

I say I-DEE-UH

[Posterity]

Oh. I guess that's true because I heard it from John Kerry.

Do they say more funny things in the northeast? Can Dan Rather be characterized as having a typical northeastern dialect?

No.  Dan Rather is from Texas.  He uses a general form of pronunciation typical of most news anchors, although his Texas drawl is still present to some extent.

"ideaR" is definitely a northeast thing.  Very common among New Yorkers from what I know.

But Bostonians, like Kerry, have an accent all their own.  They leave off the R's in a lot of words, like "cah" instead of "car".  Haven't you ever seen the move Jaws?  "He's in the back yahd not to fah from the cah".

Edited to add that most of the time Kerry doesn't use the Boston accent, but it slips out sometimes.

[KEmperor]

It's simply a regional variation.  People with heavy northeastern accents will pronounce it with an "r" at the end, I personally do not.

[lidaker]

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Oh. I surely got that wrong. I think I thought I found some similarities in Dan Rather's dialect and the way John Kennedy spoke, something in the "thickness" of their pronouncing.

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I guess that has something to do with the English influence.


Also, I find big differences in the way southerners speak. John Edwards has kind of a funny dialect. To me, it doesn't sound very similar to George W. Bush's.

[KEmperor]

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Oh. I surely got that wrong. I think I thought I found some similarities in Dan Rather's dialect and the way John Kennedy spoke, something in the "thickness" of their pronouncing.

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I guess that has something to do with the English influence.

Also, I find big differences in the way southerners speak. John Edwards has a kind of funny dialect. To me, it doesn't sound very similar to George W. Bush's.

That's because the Carolinas are hundreds of miles away from Texas.  The United States is huge, there are numerous differences.

[Gabu]

Why do Americans say "ideaR" and "ideaRs", instead of pronouncing the words as they are spelled? It seems kind of unnecessary to add a sound that isn't there. Do all Americans pronounce them this way? Do you have more words in which you add funny sounds?

I actually saw a comedian that had this "unnecessary R" thing as part of his routine.  His example was, "I come from WaRshington!"

[Posterity]

Yeah, Texans have an accent different from other southern states.  The upper midwest states (MI, WI, etc.) also have a unique accent (although less noticeable than the Texas and Southern accents).

The U.S. is a big place and has many different accents and dialects.

[lidaker]

I found this map of the "Linguistic Geography of the Mainland United States". I guess there are many mutual differences in the respective areas.

[ATFFL]

Good map, lidaker, but that is an abstraction of a REALLY complex situation.  There are a lot of subregions inside those regions.

For example, much of the Atlantic Coast have similar features in their speech that date back to ships stopping all along the coast.

Not to mention someone from inland Texas will have little in common with a DelMarVa Virginian.

[Lunar]

If someone said "idear" in front of me, I'd probably thwack him.  Hah.

[John Dibble]

If someone said "idear" in front of me, I'd probably thwack him.  Hah.

Never move to the south - you will get shot for smacking someone.

[Lunar]

If someone said "idear" in front of me, I'd probably thwack him.  Hah.

Never move to the south - you will get shot for smacking someone.

Well, if someone said it like that over here, it'd be because they were intentionally trying to sound stupid, heh.

I'd have to supress the urges rather badly if I ever went to Wisconsin and heard people calling drinking fountains "bubblers" though.

[Platypus]

we say i-deer in australia, but no emphasis at all on the r, it sort of fades out towards it.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Well, y'all can things however you like over yonder.  But in South Carolina we've got a mess of accents with Gullah and Charlestonian being merely the most distinctive.  If it hadn't been for his accent Hollings might have had a shot at the Democratic Presidential nomination in '84, but for anyone who hasn't already head it before, a Charleston accent can be incomprehensible.

[DA]

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:) I guess that has something to do with the English influence.


Also, I find big differences in the way southerners speak. John Edwards has kind of a funny dialect. To me, it doesn't sound very similar to George W. Bush's.

The English add r to a lot of words. Listen to the BBC World Service: mediaR, AfricaR, cheetahR.

Also, "the South" has A LOT of different areas. In fact, Missouri is considered to be in the Midwest, but many people talk like they are from Tennesee or Arkansas (Tennesee and Arkansas do sound different). I think each state, if not each region of the states have their own accents.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition has this to say, "Regional Note: Regional terms for the dragonfly are numerous- the Dictionary of American Regional English lists nearly 80 of them. The greatest variety of terms is to be found in the South, where the most widespread term is snake doctor (a name based on a folk belief that dragonflies take care of snakes). The Midland equivalent is snake feeder. Speakers from the Lower South and the Mississippi Valley, on the other hand, are more likely to refer to the same insect as a mosquito fly, mosquito hawk, or, in the South Atlantic states, a skeeter hawk. The imagery outside the South often alludes to the insect's shape rather than its behavior or diet: speakers in the West, Upper North, and New England call it a darner, darning needle, or, less commonly, a devil's darning needle, and those in the Upper North also refer to it just as a needle; those in Coastal New Jersey, a spindle; and those in the San Francisco Bay area, an ear sewer, that is, a creature that sews up your ears." (Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company) This can give you some idea of the amount of regional variation in American speach.[/quote]

[Lunar]

I call it either a mosquito hawk or a dragon fly, I wasn't even aware of any regional variations on it.

Here's pop, soda, and coke:



It's based on internet polls and the like, thus the counties and states with low populations vary more than in actuality.  Also note that the one county in Idaho that Gore won is yellow.

[A18]

The evidence shows that conservatives say coke, libertarians say pop, liberals say soda, and other....uh, what else can you call it?

[A18]

By the way, are there any other cool maps like that? I've always been interested in seeing something other than politics from state to state

[Lunar]

The evidence shows that conservatives say coke, libertarians say pop, liberals say soda, and other....uh, what else can you call it?

Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia, South Dakota, etc. aren't very libertarian.

Just shows some cultural relationships between various areas.  The West related a lot more to New England than Texas, as does South Florida.  West Pennsylvania is a completely different world than East Florida politically too.