The Real Thing
I try, as hard as I possibly can, to respect accents and local languages. It is a very serious thing to me, a matter of respect. That's not to say that I don't make serious accent mistakes sometimes - I do, but I try to learn from my mistakes. That said, I am astounded at the number of people who actually seem to take some pleasure in mispronouncing proper names, and in particular, place names, as a sign of their (supposed) cosmopolitanism. For instance, I accept that many folks outside of Appalachia pronounce the names of the mountains differently than most folks from those mountains (Southern Appalachians, in particular, usually say "app-uh-LATCH-uhn" - if you wonder how we can pronounce the "-ia" at the end as "uh," remember that it is essentially the same sound as at the end of Virginian and Pennsylvanian, with the "y" run into the hard "ch") - such is life. And, indeed, I even accept that they will refer to Appalachia in numerous equally hair-raising ways. That said - when folks come to the mountains and, after repeated corrections, will pronounce their name wrong consciously, well, yeah. Ticks me off. Not as much as it does some of my friends, but you know.
That said, I was listening to XM radio yesterday and heard what is my absolute favorite radio show, This American Life, on XM Public Radio. The episode on was number 138, "The Real Thing." The general premise of the episode, as a whole, is described by XM as such:
Stories of people drawn to some idea, some picture, some "thing" that they just want to be. How some people imitate this "thing" innocently, some less innocently, and how easy it is to slip from one to the other.
Like most This American Life episodes, "The Real Thing" touches on a series of esoteric subjects - men who fake their war credentials, a reporter who starts taking on the traits of the gang she is studying, a professor who discusses what composes "blackness", the concept of true love, and, relevant here, the apparent utter inability of Hollywood and television to effectively portray genuine Southern accents or drawls. It is hilarious - nothing like hearing a New York accent coach's utterly unconvincing Georgia accent or, most hilariously, his "Appalachian" accent. Which is a Georgia lowland accent. With a New York accent overlain. The story is hilarious, all the way around, and though the narrator, Mark Schone, who hails from the Great Dismal of southeastern Virginia mispronounces Appalachia (to my ears, anyway) the entire time, well, I don't mind, because he publically notes the truth of Southern accents - every region of the South (and I would say virtually every hamlet, holler, and neighborhood of big cities) has a different accent.
One key point that is crazy - Schone points out the tendency of Virginians (me included, in college, I fear) to make fun of the way some other Southerners pronounce their "i"s - a soft "i" rather than an "eye" in words like right, light, sight, and fight - indeed, he asserts that accent is nearly gone. Perhaps he should visit East Tennessee - I've been here long enough that now I will frequently drop the soft "i". Damn me for making fun of Lee. For four years.
Regardless, check this out. Its worth a few minutes of your day.
Oh, and Wytheville? Its "With-Ville." And Staunton? Its "Stan-ton."
I am so excited about the comments coming on this one.
10 comments:
I blogged this, but not long ago a miserable yankee, claiming to be "from Virginia" (but I have my serious doubts) said her bill was to be paid by AppalAYshen Sustanable Development (a damn grant supported yankee concern in Abingdon -- as if "sustainable" and "development" were not mutually exclusive but I digress). Miserable carpetbagging yankees. She stood there and argued with me.
Then there are the people who claim that I don't have an accent just because I do have a "Tom Brokaw" accent in order to deal with their miserable selves. I don't talk that way to other people who know how to talk.
Don't forget the Lebanon only has two syllables.
The intrusive “r” in wash = worsh used to drop my IQ in the eyes of the those around me at Ohio State by about 40 points. I will have to say the worst bigots were not native Ohioans but out-of-state students usually from the northeast. Most natives of Columbus are used to the Appalachian accent since as much as a quarter of the population is Appalachian like Dwight Yoakam.
I have also found that the pronunciation of a place name can change as one moves away from the area. Most natives of Scioto County (especially the rural folks) pronounce the county seat as “Porchmith”. Those of us who have lived too long in non Appalachian areas pronounce it “Port Smith.” I could be wrong but to my ear, the common pronunciation of is “Portsmath.”
And yes it was named after Portsmouth, VA by its founder Henry Massie a Virginian. Scioto was also once a part of Botetourt County, VA and part of the Virginia Military District.
AND ROANOKE IS "RO-NOKE" BUT I PREFERE "BIG lICK" IT'S ORIGINAL NAME
The soft i is necessary for one of my favorite expressions, "He ain't right." (or, even better, "Bless his heart, he ain't right.")
I once had a woman from Connecticut correct me when I said Vidalia onion. She said, "It's vi-dah-li-a" Starting with a short i, no less. I explained that they are grown in Vidalia (long i, long a, accent on the first syllable) Georgia, and she just looked at me with pity.
I don't know why a Southern accent can't be taught, but it does seem you have to at least partly grow up with it. And I should know, being only partly grown-up myself. I just cringe when I hear movie fake-southerners say "y'all" when they are addressing a single person.
ya'll CAN be addressed to a single person, if'n you are including his family in the invite.
Hold it, I had thought of some more place names . . . Powell Valley is heard by outsiders as "Pow Valley" but I swear I can hear the "L" in it. Pound Virginia is really properly refered to as "over on the Pound" but that's not a pronunciations issue. . .
Another determiner along the lines of roach bug - you grab somebody by "the hair of the head" (leading to an unnerving consideration of the alternatives).
Oh, and people here say they are "in" the floor rather than "on" the floor.
To the contrary goddess: I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, so technically I am a yankee; however, I was raised in southern WV. in Mcdowell County. I have had the best of both worlds and both people. I am a true mountain gal, but I also appreciate the northern folks. I refuse to live in the civil war; ever! I read this site because it is so very well written, demonstrating truths and strengths of the heart of appalachia. I feel comments such as "damnned yankee carpetbagger" or whatever it was you said, surely takes away from the whole message this site delivers as to what true appalachian folks are all about. It reminds me of something red-neck people say, but not strong, intelligent folks of appalachia who take pride in their culture enough to respect others who are different from them.
Oddly enough, where I'm from in western Middle TN, most people pronounce Appalachian as "Appalayshan".
I was an army brat, so I grew up all over, didn't move anywhere in the South from the ages of 4 to 18, though, when I moved out to Bristol, Tennessee. Took about three months of culture shock, then I loved it.
Mind you, when my dad did leave the army and we settled, it was in Virginia. But I found out, in Bristol, that the suburbs of DC were definitely not Virginia.
But yeah. I got in a lot of trouble at first, mispronouncing hollow (HOLL-er) and Tennessee (gotta stress the first syllable). Hell, I could find Haysi on a map, but I kept thinking it and (the nonexistent, I found) Hayside were two separate places.
Anyway, I fought it at first, but then I figured these are the people that live here, I'm pretty sure if they agree, they're pronouncing all this right.
I'm kind of into amateur linguistics (huge nerd here), and from that standpoint, Bristol and more the outlying areas, Richlands and Grundy and Lebanon are all fascinating. The longer I lived there, the more I realized it was almost a whole different language. You've got different vocabulary (a bag is sometimes a poke, a wallet is always a billfold, and you don't have relatives, you have kinfolk), you've got altered grammar (the mentioned "in the floor" and what's called a double modal, as in "We might could do something later."). When I realized all this, I stopped fighting the language.
I never could pick up the accent, though. But I got a little bit of a drawl, some of the rhythm of speech there, and hell, I used to stutter, but not any more.
Moved to Alaska recently, but I'm sure I'll be back there some day. Plus, I still like saying things like, "My car runs like a scalded dog."
Different pharmaceutical companies have launched generic version of Viagra online . It is just as safe and effective as their brand-name counterparts. Doctors worldwide are prescribing generic cheap Viagra to all those suffering from ED. The results have been encouraging and these men have enjoyed their sexual lives as before. Trials have shown that generic Buy Cialis is safe to use and can be combined with a number of medicines that one is prescribed or buys over the counter from time to time.
Post a Comment