In todays society of planes, trains, and cars; it is easy to meet someone from another country or state right in your own backyard. However, their culture and language might be completely different from what you are used too.
In my case, I talk to people all over the United States. I work at a shoe store and most of the time I am talking on the phone with different companies and retailers. I encounter the most interesting accents and use of dialect on a daily basis. For example, I am always calling the south (Texas, Tennesee, and South Carolina) sometimes it is hard for me (someone from Southern Illinois) to dicipher just exactly what the person on the other end of the phone is saying. Their words seem to go together and they can talk so quickly that it sounds like a mesh of one word when it is really a sentence. The best thing I have heard is "Djeet" which means, Did you eat ? Another classic example is "Doyawatyate" now obviously that looks like some word that comes from another language however, in translation it is, Do you want your tea?I have however noticed that when I talk to these retailers my accent becomes much more southern than its normal tone. I guess I feel I want to fit in with their society and changing my tone creates the illusion that I am one of them. But, if I meet anyone from a northern state, I hear the phrase "Gee, you have a thick accent"
Granted, this particular dialect can only be found in our southern states but, the northerns have a different interpretation of certain words as well. Once I over heard a comedian commenting on a gentleman from New York asking him if he wanted a "Slice of pie" now to myself and this comedian we are probably thinking "cherry, apple, chocolate." Well obviously, a slice of pie in New York means a slice of Pizza.
Dialect is something that can be found in any society of people, its thier own social club of communication. My social club just happens to be Southern Illinois and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. My accent defines who I am and probably a whole host of others feel the same way.
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2 comments:
i think that you are totally right. Your dialect can tell alot about you. Now i also work in retail here in southern illinois, and your experience is just the opposite of mine. I am from chicago and sometimes i find it difficult to understand some of the dialect that is here. I like you, often find myself talking as if i were from southern illinois myself. When i go back home to visit or what not people tell me that i have started to develop a southern accent. I think that its simply our human nature that allows us to adapt to our surroundings. Language is no exception.
I think that language is easily manipulated. If I spend five minutes around a strong Southern accent, I will have one to match. However, I have started sounding more Northern at times too because of all the kids from Chicago who are down here. I had one friend in HS who moved from Louisiana, and most days she would come to school with a thick accent that wore off some during the day. I finally realized after meeting her Mom that it was because of her Mom's very thick accent that she picked it back up from her everyday at home.
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