Community Chat

[Malcontent]

This is not a derogatory question, I’m simply curious why.

I hear some people from the northeast say a R in place of a W.  E.G.: Laryer instead of lawyer.

As someone who personally slaughters the English language on a daily basis (I’m Italian—my only excuse), I’m just curious why the R instead of W.

Does any one know where this comes from?

[Sage04]

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@Tori3569 wrote:

@Mersha I need to know what a "gum band" is?   😃

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@Tori3569  I was about to ask @Mersha  that question lol.

[Mersha]

@Tori3569  Gum bands are rubber bands.

I have no earthly idea why we call them "gum" but there you go.

[AZfem]

@Mersha don't forget that most famous Pittsburgh word "youns' or 'yinz"!!  Are youns going to the game?  Do yinz have some gum?  They even have a yinzer gang sign at Steelers games!

When I first moved to AZ, I was at a dentists office & they immediately pegged me as Western PA by my accent. I said what accent?  I don't have an accent!

Also when I first moved here & said words like buggy & pop  people looked at me like I was speaking another language. 

There are whole dictionaries online of Pittsburghese.

[Mersha]

@AZfem   That is too funny!

...and the infamous "Kennywood is open."

[luvmybeetle]

I just took the Babbel test and it said Northwest Pacific.  I've never been there.  I was born in Northern Ohio and live in SW Ohio now.  There is a definate accent here that is different from my Northern OH accent.  Maybe some of that rubbed off.  I had an accent as they do in Cleveland.  I'm confused now.

[smoochy]

welp. I am a native Hoosier but lived most of my adult life in Michigan. Our accent is distinctive, also it is quite a bit different depending on whether you're from the Lower or Upper Peninsula. The U.P. accent is pretty much Canadian. One of the funny things about our accent is that most folks from Michigan will say they don't have one. Lol😁
I'm from southwest Lower. You would notice how I say certain words, like Bob=Baab  Hand= haand  We say Ope when accidentally bumping into someone. 

We say You guys when referring to a group of people.
Our convenience stores are often called party stores, ya know where ya go for the beer, pop and snacks 🍺🥜

[Malcontent]

@Mersha 

 Gum bands are rubber bands? What kind of evil sorcery is this? lol

[Tori3569]

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@Mersha wrote:

@Tori3569  Gum bands are rubber bands.

I have no earthly idea why we call them "gum" but there you go.

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I don't think I would have ever guessed that! I was thinking something like gum wrappers or something. Ha! This is a great thread @Oznell! Thanks for posting.

[Oznell]

Ha, ha, @Sage04 ,   I love the roundabout delicacy with which you alluded to that particular pronunciation of "fork"!

@Malcontent ,  that's one of the many, many fascinating regional variations that interests me too-- but, unfortunately, I don't know where it comes from.  Maybe someone else can enlighten us.   I've heard of "r" being inserted into words like "wash" (warsh), and "Washington" too.

Sometimes the pronunciations are holdovers from colonial times, or other early times.  For example, the habit of dropping (not inserting) the final "r" sound of a word, started happening on the Eastern Seaboard, in imitation of the way English is spoken in London.  But that didn't catch on in other parts of the U.S.,  where the final "r" sound in a word is always hard, and sounded out.

Are there many accents to be discerned in Italy?   Is the biggest distinction between North and South?   Coastal vs. more inland?  Or...