<p>H was asked to do a Hebrew naming ceremony for a baby named “Sean Ian.” He was curious why they were naming their child “John John” (in his mind, anyway). When he had to offer them Hebrew equivalents for each name, he was tempted to suggest the single Hebrew letter “Ayin” to cover the middle name Ian, since pronunciations could be identical (like the pirate, aye-in). Unfortunately, “Ayin” is a silent Hebrew letter and nobody expected this particular baby to be silent.</p>
<p>“I did know an Ian pronounded eye-an.”</p>
<p>There is a tennis commentator who pronounces his name ‘eye-an’. Drives me crazy, but I guess since his last name is Eagle it would be even worse to hear ee-an eagle.</p>
<p>Here a rig is a semi-truck only, a truck is a pick-up and an SUV is a car. (Do not even think about calling your Escalade a truck – you will get laughed out of the gas station.)</p>
<p>So based on this thread I have been “testing” people all day on how to say Mary, marry, merry. I live in the Chicago area, and only a NJ transplant says these differently. I have tried all day to say marry like in the youtube video, and it produces only giggles. </p>
<p>Another plural that my father used was You-uns. It substituted for a Y’all but someone in KY told me that You-uns was also used there.</p>
<p>^ I’m glad I’m not the only one testing people’s accents now lol. </p>
<p>I can’t wait to go up north next week and test people. I’m going on vacation with my friend from Iowa, family from Ohio, and we interact with a lot of people from all over the country up north. This is going to be fun 
(linguistic anthropology was my first passion in college so I’m a total language nerd in many different ares lol).</p>
<p>Also, I’ve never heard of a rig. I thought that was some kind of boat :/</p>
<p>Instead of y’all, we have “you guys” and sometimes the plural is said as “yous guys.”</p>
<p>Yous guys. Definitely New Jersey.
In western PA, it’s iggle, btw.<br>
Ages ago, a minister told me that they taught standard American pronucation in seminary, to wash out the regionalism- somehow the “standard” was then Ohio.</p>
<p>According to linguists, everyone has an accent. There is no “baseline” for lack of a better word.</p>
<p>7th generation Arkansan, lived in TX for 20 years: Singular - yew, Plural - y’all, A really big group - all y’all. I also use the possessive: y’alls</p>
<p>Even my Minnesotan H has started saying y’all after 20 years. It’s pretty handy. </p>
<p>Our big debate: Ruff or rufe (the thing that covers your house).</p>
<p>When I lived in Ohio, liquor stores were called “state stores”. Are they still called that? I thought that was a mighty odd name for a liquor store.</p>
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I’ve never heard that, but then again I only lived in Ohio until I was 13, so I didn’t hear a whole lot about liquor stores.</p>
<p>Around NC, they’re just called “ABC Stores.”</p>
<p>By the way, I would love to answer any questions about the cultural move from the North to the South. I have quite the expertise.</p>
<p>Haven’t lived there in awhile, but as far as I know, they are still called “State Stores” because the sale of liquor is controlled by the state.</p>
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<p>For sure. It’s interesting to move away from your familiar place, where people seem accentless, to some place where the local accent is very different. Wait a few years, then take a trip back to the previous place. You’ll probably discover the accent!</p>
<p>I never noticed Canadian raising ([Canadian</a> raising - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_raising]Canadian”>Canadian raising - Wikipedia)) until I’d lived in the US south for a few years. Then on a trip back to visit family, I noticed it everywhere - people talking in the airport waiting lounge, my sister-in-law…</p>
<p>Yes, we say “you guys”. But I found when I lived in Cinti/KY, “y’all” was so much better. Like, if I saw grandparents of a patient (I’m a pediatrician), I could easily say “Where y’all from” and saying “you guys” to elderly people seemed disrespectful but y’all for some reason didn’t. A general “you” worked too but y’all worked so much better.</p>
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<p>But I’ve also heard “yous” or even “yous guys” as the plural of “you” in Brooklyn, the south side of Chicago, and south Milwaukee.</p>
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<p>You can only buy liquor in a store run by the state in PA, too, so they’re state stores here. If you think it sounds funny, you should try having to live with buying liquor on the state’s idea of appropriate hours - and never on a Sunday or holiday.</p>
<p>And you can’t buy a six-pack of beer in PA, either, unless you go to a bar that has carry-out and pay an outrageous amount. You buy beer from a “distributor” and have to get it by the case - or keg. (Wegman’s is the only grocery store I know that is somehow allowed to sell beer by the six-pack, and they are few and far between - only one in my area.) There’s been some talk of privatizing liquor stores, but it always gets lots of resistance - we are the Quaker State, after all.
Guess that’s key information for the college bound…</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I remember the exact moment I first (coming from North Jersey) heard a New York accent. I had lived in PA for about 8 years and was working in software support. I answered a call from a New York client and got something like, “Yuh wu-dint buhleev duh prublums whe-yah are havin’ heer-yuh tuhday!”. I looked at the phone and thought, “Are you kidding? Have you always sounded like that? HAVE I??”
And just this week someone picked up that I’m from Jersey because I said my son is visiting “I-ta-ly” - here it’s “It-ly.”</p>
<p>I’m from Vermont!
Be prepared for mud season.
Be cautious of deer when driving.</p>
<p>megpmom: I agree that “y’all” and its variations are very handy (“all y’all” is a personal favorite–I love the redundancy). I hate “you guys,” especially for women or older people. But unfortunately that is what we are stuck with up here in Wisconsin.</p>
<p>Scoutsmom - when I was a very little girl, I thought “state store” was “steak store”. I guess because someone always went there before we had a cook-out. I thought that’s where they got the steaks…lol.</p>
<p>Just curious, in places like NJ/NY or various places in the south where the accents are pretty heavy, do you feel like you have an “accent”. Do you notice your pronunciation of words is different than other areas? Boston especially since that one is so unique.</p>