Our Southern Language

[mpaer]

I have not only a Southern accent but a pretty rural one as well -- not an elite or country club by any means. I also am a professor. It has been a bit of a bane over the years in a number of situations but I like to think that it has helped me to catch as many folks off guard as it has resulted in my being discriminated against. I also teach Latin American History and having learned to speak Spanish through immersion I've got a pretty good accent there, which I thoroughly enjoy "whipping out" when amongst potentially snobby peers. While my Spanish is not the most grammatically correct there is an edge gained by coaching and playing hoops and tending bar in Central America that can throw some for a loop. In my building in NYC work multiple NewYoriqans and Dominicans and I love comparing my Central American (Chapin) parlance with their island argot.

I finally passed my required Spanish II at the Univ of Wis by taking the "quickie" summer session My accent was still NC My young professor -who was drop dead beautiful , to the point of distraction, passed me in part because she had never heard a southern accent speak spanish. I was a novelty to her

 

[donbosco]

Finnish friend speaking Spanish is probably the weirdest I’ve heard though a cockney accent is also quite strange.

 

[farce©]

I've never gotten the pen, pin thing right. Interchangeable to me.

Yep. Wonder and wander are pronounced the same and you need to rely on context to figure it out. Same with pen and pin, that's why we use adjectives to say which we mean, straight pin, safety pin, ink pen, pig pen. In some country-ass dialects, pin and pen are not only homophones, but are pronounced with two syllables, sounding a lot like the euphemism for urinating, like "pee'-un". As in "I need an ink pee'-un to sign this paper."

 

[donbosco]

In Spanish the sounds of 'I' and 'E' are essentially reversed -- since I've learned Spanish I often have problems. I have a student named Teila...and I look at her name and freeze -- get the pronunciation wrong about half the time.