dialects

[ran]

The facebook thread got me thinking about dialects.

I grew up speaking a language that has 38 letters of a distinctive alphabet. You can open any english dictionary and look at the tree of languages and see that there are no branches to the Armenian language.

I know that most if not all languages have different dialects. For such a small people we have one every 10 feet. It creates unity and at the same time can divide us.

If at all possible can I hear from others about theirs ?

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by ran

You can open any english dictionary and look at the tree of languages and see that there are no branches to the Armenian language.

Not Sanskrit? It is an Indo-European language, I'm pretty sure. Euskara (Basque language) is even more mysterious.

My dialect is Brooklynese. We say things like "Your mutha's a whoer."

[Jimmy Cantiello]

And then you have that curious Brooklynese accent you hear in New Orleans of all places.

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Cantiello

And then you have that curious Brooklynese accent you hear in New Orleans of all places.

An explanation I've heard is that that particular ward had the same mix of immigrants as Brooklyn around the turn of the 20th century.

[Gary Sisco]

I thought it sounded more Boston.

[Uli]

ja gäu, so geit's
äs geit u geit
bis nüme geit
u wes de nüme geit
de geit's de gliich no
ja gäu, so geit's

[Pete C]

We used to have a Romansch speaker around here (Knike).

[Mike Schwartz]

Originally Posted by Pete C

We used to have a Romansch speaker around here (Knike).

Belongs in the "Our dwindling numbers" thread

[rollhead]

I was in a bar in Berlin once where I heard some people who were (apparently) native German speakers. They were screwing up all the articles, Der, Die, Das, etc. But otherwise rattling quite comfortably away in German.

For example, I learned that in Berlin it was -- Der Whisky, Das Bier and Die Cola. These guys were getting it all wrong (from Berlinisch perspective)

I said to the bartender, "What's with them?"

She said, "Oh, them... they're SWISS."

[bluenoter]

Babies Cry With an Accent, Study Finds

Newborns Cry With the Melody of Their Parent's [sic] Language

By LAUREN COX
ABC News Medical Unit

Nov. 5, 2009—

Think newborns just eat, sleep and wail the same way across the world? That's not so, according to a new study which found that babies cry with an accent within the first week of life.

By recording cries of 60 babies born to French or German parents, researchers discovered that babies cry with the same "prosody" or melody used in their native language by the second day of life.

French newborns in the study ended their cries with a lilt at the end typically heard in French. German babies, however, started their cries intensely and dropped off at the end -- much like the emphasis their German parents put in a sentence, according to a study published Thursday in Current Biology.

Experts in child development say the most exciting part of this discovery is not that infants recognize the melody of their language, but that the newborns may have the ability to use what they heard in the womb to then control their cries. . . .
  

[steve(thelil)]

Originally Posted by bluenoter

Babies Cry With an Accent, Study Finds

Newborns Cry With the Melody of Their Parent's [sic] Language

By LAUREN COX
ABC News Medical Unit

Nov. 5, 2009—

Think newborns just eat, sleep and wail the same way across the world? That's not so, according to a new study which found that babies cry with an accent within the first week of life.

By recording cries of 60 babies born to French or German parents, researchers discovered that babies cry with the same "prosody" or melody used in their native language by the second day of life.

French newborns in the study ended their cries with a lilt at the end typically heard in French. German babies, however, started their cries intensely and dropped off at the end -- much like the emphasis their German parents put in a sentence, according to a study published Thursday in Current Biology.

Experts in child development say the most exciting part of this discovery is not that infants recognize the melody of their language, but that the newborns may have the ability to use what they heard in the womb to then control their cries. . . .
  

It could also be that melody of speech actually becomes part of DNA handed down.

[Jimmy Cantiello]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

I thought it sounded more Boston.

That reminds me of the time years ago when four of us from Connecticut were in Hyannis waiting for the ferry to Martha's Vineyard. A group of people in line with us were talking amongst themselves. It was obvious to us that these people were from Boston because of their heavy accent. Apparently they were listening to our conversation as well because after a while one of the guys in that group spoke up and asked where we were from. I replied we were from Connecticut. He said, "I thought so, you have such heavy accents." We all laughed because nobody was convinced they had any accent at all.

[ran]

When I went back to Soviet Armenian , I spent all my time on the border city of Lenninakan. At that time most tourists weren't allowed to go there. Having spent 2 months there I quickly became part of that dialect. In fact when I got home my father begged me to stop speaking Armenian with him and instead speak , which was common , English.

Later on when my parents had soldiers who came to the states and stayed at their home to have operations and rehabilitate , the area that they came from was in Karabagh. If they wanted to , which they always did , they spoke a dialect that wasn't to my ears even Armenian. I couldn't understand a word they said , yet they said it was our language.

Oh and by da by , I got you mutha hangin right heire.

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by ran

Oh and by da by , I got you mutha hangin right heire.

I hope you're enjoying your visit to South Florida.

[lonely-at-the-top]

Originally Posted by rollhead

I said to the bartender, "What's with them?"

She said, "Oh, them... they're SWISS."

Probably Berlinish polite form of "oh, they're "boozed", "wasted", "arseholed", "caned" or "shitfaced"

I can't think of any other reason why a Swiss guy would mix articles
On the other hand I can't think of any reason why a Berliner would be polite (BTW :I always wondered if JFK knew what he was admitting?)

[clinthopson]

I've been told that when I speak Spanish I have a Mexican accent.

That kind of figures.

[baksheesh]

Originally Posted by lonely-at-the-top

(BTW :I always wondered if JFK knew what he was admitting?)

I knew a German family growing up when i was a kid, and they delighted in telling all and sundry. Never had one - are they tasty? I'm assuming Marily certainly thought so.

[lonely-at-the-top]

Originally Posted by baksheesh

Never had one - are they tasty? I'm assuming

I was not referring to any kind of pastry but to the plain fact that the people of Berlin are almost as renowned for their lack of courtesy as is any given New Yorker (JC posters exempted, of course)

So, with JFK saying "I am a Berliner", the correct and adequate reply would have been: " Well thank you very much"

[Uli]

Originally Posted by lonely-at-the-top

I can't think of any other reason why a Swiss guy would mix articles

clearly, die Coca Cola is wrong. It's das Coca Cola. But that's beyond the point in reality it's das Coci.

[Vince Kargatis]

Originally Posted by steve(thelil)

It could also be that melody of speech actually becomes part of DNA handed down.

This is phrased in a way that looks Lamarckian, discredited over a hundred years ago. There are loads of reasons to think that contemporary linguistic differences have no particular genetic causes, but certainly imagining that somehow those differences get "imprinted" on DNA is very wrong.

[GoodSpeak]

I am a Native Californian [unlike Mike Schwartz; the pretend Californian] and I can safely say, and without reservation, that we Californians have no accent.


Manufactured surfer/valley/snotty girl accents don't count.

[Pete C]

There's definitely a Southern California accent. All of the Bay Area people I know come from somewhere else.

[GoodSpeak]

Originally Posted by Pete C

There's definitely a Southern California accent. All of the Bay Area people I know come from somewhere else.

It is a pretend accent, Pete.


Don't be fooled.


And if there is any truth to tell...60% of those living in California "came from somwhere else."



Just ask Mike "Cali" Schwartz.

[GoodSpeak]

Nobody who was born and raised here in the Golden State says that absolutely idiotic "Cali" shit.


It's kinda like saying 'Frisco instead of San Francisco.


No self-respecting Bay Area resident would ever call San Francisco 'Frisco.



This is how we Native Californians know you're from some Eastern state....or any other completely clueless place on the planet.

[Mike Schwartz]

Should I be flattered (I think not) but when did this thread turn into a discussion about me?

My late Dad, a native NYer & retired Floridian, called SF 'Frisco' as he recalled it from his stays there awaiting WWII assignments that date back to the early 1940's.

Luckily, Tim is not in charge of anything, though does remind us of all kinds of silly_ass *rules* that people should follow.

Here's an article from the SF Chronicle, that speaks about the word, as well as Goodspeak's dreaded Cali which I picked up from some Californian hip-hoppers during my current radio run.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...type=printable

[Mike Schwartz]

From the Phrases, Sayings and Idioms website:

: CALIFORNIA
: Malibu - The Boo or Big Boo
: Modest - Mo-Town
: Los Angeles - Smell A, Hell A, Behind the Orange Curtain, Los Scandelous, La La Land, Illa
: Sacramento - Sack of Tomatoes, Sacred Men's Toes, Sack Toe, Sock Town.
: San Francisco - Frisco, San Fantastico, Bagdad by the Bay.

[clinthopson]

There was an article in a recent New Yorker about a dialect coach. He says there is a definite California accent.

But I'm sure since it's from California, it's way too cool.

[jesus marion joseph]

Originally Posted by GoodSpeak

This is how we Native Californians know you're from some Eastern state....or any other completely clueless place on the planet.

Irony meter pegged.........

[steve(thelil)]

Originally Posted by steve(thelil)

It could also be that melody of speech actually becomes part of DNA handed down.

Originally Posted by Vince Kargatis

This is phrased in a way that looks Lamarckian, discredited over a hundred years ago. There are loads of reasons to think that contemporary linguistic differences have no particular genetic causes, but certainly imagining that somehow those differences get "imprinted" on DNA is very wrong.

I take it you disagree with me and the Lamarckster.

I wasn't actually basing my statement on anything I knew or believed. It popped into my mind and I was just throwing it out there, since I don't actually mind being very wrong. It's kind of a hobby.

Here's another one: Was science advanced enough over a hundred years ago to discredit Lamarckianism in a way that holds up today?

[sonic1]

I studied Chinese and it makes any of the above languages seem simple. 36 letters? Try thousands of characters that all look and sound alike.

I think often language has been used by the elite to separate out the classes. In the case of Chinese, writing was so difficult, no peasant could ever hope to attain literacy.

In Europe the upper classes learned Latin so they could exclude the lower classes.

The difficulty of language seems often to have the purpose NOT of communication, but of exclusion. Maybe I am hopelessly looking out for the common people, while still wanting the stimulation of the extraordinary.