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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Fun With Dialects

A Facebook friend posted the link to this group of maps that show various American dialects and I thought, "I'll have to check that out." Then I saw a bunch of different people talking about the maps on Twitter and thought, "I'm going to check that out right now."

It's pretty interesting. Some of the findings match my expectations, while others don't. For example, I pronounce "crayon" the way the map says I should based on my Delaware Valley roots. But here's the thing: I know very few people from the Delaware Valley who pronounce "crayon" the way I do - most people I knew growing up said "crown." I don't know how I learned to pronounce "crayon" the correct way, but I did; it's the same with "water." Speaking of, I'm surprised "water" didn't make the cut since I can think of three pronunciations off the top of my head.

I learned some things, too. I had no idea that so many people have no idea how to pronounce "Bowie knife." I learned how to pronounce it when I was a kid and we were driving past Bowie, MD and I pronounced it like David Bowie and my dad told me I was wrong and explained about Jim Bowie and the Bowie knife. Also, I finally understand why the creepy Morgan & Morgan guy says "law-yer;" I always thought he was being obnoxious but it turns out he was just being Southern.

As far as the hoagie map is concerned, that sandwich was invented in Philadelphia so I think the rest of the country should just accept that it's a hoagie. And that's a fairly recent stance for me. We called that sandwich a sub when I was growing up (my dad isn't from the Delaware Valley) and I always thought the word "hoagie" was dumb. But I really started to embrace "hoagie" when I moved to Florida. It will be interesting to see if I revert to calling it a sub if when I move back to Philly.

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