Saturday, January 15, 2011

Is It Everything You Hoped For?

My voice, I mean. Many of you may never have heard my voice, let alone seen me speaking, so enjoy this, my first video blog, or "vlog." As I say in the video, I got the prompt for this from Aly, who has a positively lovely accent. My accent, if such exists, is not nearly as lovely...


Say these words:
Aunt, route, wash, oil, theater, iron, salmon, caramel, fire, water, sure, data, ruin, crayon, toilet, New Orleans, pecan, both, again, probably, spitting image, Alabama, lawyer, coupon mayonnaise, syrup, pajamas, caught.

Now answer these questions:

-What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
-What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
-What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
-What do you call gym shoes?
-What do you say to address a group of people?
-What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
-What do you call your grandparents?
-What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
-What do you call it when the rain falls while the sun is shining?
-What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

9 comments:

fjd said...

So cute. Glad to see you're looking chipper. :)

I lived all over the US growing up, and I agree with you: West Coastians generally don't have an accent. Perhaps it's because Best Coastians tend not to be native, so the dialect is an average of a lot of dialects.

One might object that saying there is no accent simply suggests I'm used to it and so don't detect it. But I think of an accent as a very particular speech pattern: for example, consistent softening of the 'r' sound combined with a rounding of certain vowels. In contrast, in an accent-less dialect, there is no consistent enunciation pattern: each word is said in its own way.

LSM said...

I agree that Californians don't have a regional accent. In fact, my brother moved from Texas to California for college and completely lost his accent which had been fairly distinct. But, it surprised me that you and I would answer the questions at the end more alike than differently.

Big Sis said...

Yay! I haven't heard you speak in ages. Like, 3 years or something. Maybe 4. I can't remember when that was, except for "September". And now, I have an idea for blogging, bc I'd resigned myself to saying nothing until I had something I could blog about. I'll come back to let y'all know. Yes. Y'all.

Mrs. Chili said...

1. "Papering," as in "those damned kids papered the oak tree last night."
2. I don't think we have these kinds of bugs in New England, though I suspect it's some kind of beetle.
3. Soda.
4. Sneakers
5. That depends on the level of formality. My students are usually addressed as "hey, guys! Attention up here, please!"
5. Daddy Long-Legs
6. Gramma and Grampa
7. A cart.
8. Sunshowers
9. A clicker!

I'm eager to see others' answers!

BetteJo said...

I LOVE it that you corrected the grammar! My blog must make you crazy. I love these kinds of things -
TP-ing

Roly poly

POP!!! (rare anyone says this these days)

gym shoes

Hi you guys ..

daddy long legs

Grandma and Grandpa

shopping cart or just cart

I couldn't think of anything for rain and sun together either - I guess I've heard 'sunshowers' but like you it's not something I call anything.

the remote

And you're just as adorable speaking as writing! :)

BetteJo said...

Oh - and I say Aunt like ant, route like ow, and I think some of the bigs ones are words like wash and closet and God. Of course I think I say them 'normally'.

Alison said...

My answers:

TPing
Roly poly
Soda
Tennis shoes
Excuse me
Daddy Long Legs
Grandma and Grandpa
Shopping cart
Raining
Remote control

Never lived anywhere but southern California! :)

Anonymous said...

I totally want to do this but I got 2 hours of sleep last night and my face is all puffy. So... later. ha.

Anonymous said...

TV has made what used to be considered a "Californian accent" the norm. In some ways, it has shaped our language and dialect nationwide.

Very interesting list of questions!

1. TP'ing
2. Potato bug, also known as pill bug
3. Soda, but now that I live in the South, I hear all flavors and varieties of soda called "Coke". As in, Mt. Dew Coke, Pepsi Coke, Coke Coke, etc.
4. tennis shoes, running shoes
5. Hi, howdy and hey, depending on my mood.
6. Daddy long-legs
7. Grandma and Grandpa or Granny and Gramps, depending on which set.
8. cart
9. nothing, but I've heard sunshowers too.
10. remote
4.