Questions tagged [dialects]
This tag is for questions related to mutually intelligible variations within a language.
586
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Y'all pronounced as "yah"
I grew up in Texas, and I've heard and often said "yah" instead of y'all. I've never seen it listed as an alternative word to y'all.
Has anyone else heard this pronunciation? I cannot seem ...
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Does anyone know what the word "Some" means here? [closed]
Just to context:
I've playing a gang context game and after a funeral the rival gang drives by shooting and then the characters that were at the funeral have the car blown up and then they have to run ...
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3
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Meaning of “a dizzard”
I’m working on translation of an American novel, dating back to the late 19th - early 20th centuries, and the main character came from a local little Vermont town.
The author describes him as “old ...
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2
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In which Englishes are "distant" relative clauses acceptable?
Are sentences like these
The man got beaten up who James saw take the train yesterday.
The potato was eaten that Hayley said she wanted.
with these meanings
The man who James saw take the train ...
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Where does the subcontinental usage of 'one' to mean 'named' come from?
Sometimes, when reading texts published in India, written by authors of Indian origin, I notice a usage of the word one in the sense of 'named,' or 'is called.' For instance, it's present in this ...
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2
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Is there a word for 'everything' in the Northern English dialect?
I'm wondering if there's a word for everything in the Northern-English dialect that's spoken in and around Yorkshire.
I know that there's summat (something), owt (anything), and nowt (nothing), but is ...
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2
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1
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Is it common to pronounce "machinations" with /sh/?
In the show The Sandman, Ep7, a character speaks "machinations" with a soft /sh/, as "mash-in-ay-tions":
You seek to snare him in your machinations again?
I expected the "ch&...
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Why does the 'Intrusive 'R' appear in the state of Mississippi?
I've seen people discuss the intrusive 'R'. I have also been very curious about this subject, because I am from Mississippi and both my Mother and my Grandmother use the intrusive 'R'. ('Warsh', ...
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What would a British person call the biscuits that Americans put gravy on?
What are the biscuits that Americans put gravy on called in British English? They're very different from British biscuits. I like both kinds of biscuits, but the British ones would not be good with ...
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Is using "what" in place of "that" associated with a particular dialect of English? [duplicate]
While watching Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, I heard the character Pete say the phrase "reindeer what fly" instead of "reindeer that fly". As a native English speaker, I have ...
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Are "orange" and "ginger" synonymous (cat color)?
I recently watched a movie A street cat named Bob, where the cat was described as ginger cat.
I thought the color of the cat is described as orange, too. (confirmed with google image search)
The ...
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103
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Non-standard grammar feature in British dialect?
I moved from Worcestershire in the UK to a non-native English speaking country when I was a child, which has made me very aware of my accent. Unlike my parents, I used to have a regional accent. I ...
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Why does "we have been over this" mean something different from "we are over this"?
The whole sentence is:
We’ve been over this a thousand times. The data is irrefutable!
What does it mean to "have been over this" here in this context? How does this meaning differ here ...
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Examples of the "Proper" use of "ain't" etc. in Georgia/American English Southern dialect?
In Hendrickson, Robert. The Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms. New York: Facts on File, 2000. p6 the introduction to "Whistlin' Dixie" we find (emphasis added):
Another ...
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2
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Is there a term for use of "would" conditional to indicate lack of precision?
In the Northern Irish dialect, a speaker can say
You see, I would have been very shy, and his encouragement really
helped me.
Here, the "would have been" is used to indicate that the ...
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3
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1
answer
123
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Why is ‘Gentiles’ considered a two-syllable word?
When I say the word Gentiles I make three specific vowel sounds. I posted a poem in a writing group recently and everyone gave the feedback that a particular line was missing a syllable, when in my ...
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1
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Why is 'e' pronounced like 'a' in some words?
I'm not a native English speaker and I have noticed that 'e' in some words are pronounced like 'a' by native speakers sometimes. For example, "Texas" sounds like "Taxes", or "...
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1
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400
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Pronunciation of “tour”
Is the following pronunciation of the word “tour” attested in any common dialect of British English?
[tɔ˞]
This is approximately how I, a native British English speaker, pronounce it. However, it’s ...
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1
answer
176
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What does "pack a buck for miles" mean?
I am reading "Where the Crawdads sing" and I stumbled upon this sentence "pack a buck for miles".
Does this mean some money (e.g., US dollar)?
"The Land . . . being marshy ...
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Does any dialect really use 'thee' instead of 'thou'?
There's a John Wayne movie - prolly Angel and the Badman (1947) in which our injured 19th-century hero's Quaker nurse speaks what sounds like a doubly idiomatic form of English…
'Doubly idiomatic' ...
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Does Mia Khalifa speak English with an accent?
She immigrated to America at age 7 (other sources say ten) she seems quite fluent to me.
From Wikipedia
Khalifa attended a French-language private school in Beirut, where she also learned to speak ...
3
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Term for different pronunciations of the same word
Does anyone know what it's called when a word's pronunciation changes based on context? I am not talking about different people pronouncing the same word differently (i.e. caramel).
E.g. I say "I ...
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(Mis-)pronunciation of ‘accoutrement’ that ends in -L not in -NT?
I’m interested in the apparent mispronunciation of the word accoutrement [əˈkutrəmənt].
Although it’s not a word I encounter daily, when occasioned upon, I often hear the speaker pronounce it as [...
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Usage of the term "good egg" [closed]
I came across the informal idiom good egg which means a likeable or pleasant person. The idiom seems somewhat old-fashioned.
My question is: How common is this idiom inside and outside the USA ? And ...
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In what varieties of English is "working" used (as a gerund) instead of "work" (as a noun)?
A recent question on the English Language Learners Stack Exchange concerned the use of the phrase "have been knowing" (as opposed to "have known"). While the latter is standard in ...
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In which dialects is "knowed" the past tense of know?
In some folk songs, such as Woody Guthrie's "Hard Traveling" and Townes Van Zandt's "Poncho and Lefty," the word "knowed" is used as the past tense of "know."
...
3
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0
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85
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Reverse Tensing of the /æ/ Phoneme in American English?
I am a native speaker of a General American sociolect that realizes the /æ/ phoneme as [ɛə] before nasal consonants (e.g. 'fan,' 'stand,' 'ram'), and I've recently noticed that I've begun un-raising (...
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Is there an English dialect that distinguishes between stressed /oʊ/ from its final unstressed form?
Is there any English dialect that distinguishes the stressed /oʊ/ as in goat, throat, slope, broke, stroke, etc. from the final, unstressed /oʊ/ as in sparrow, arrow, tomorrow, yellow, window, etc?
...
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American English region where "here" is pronounced "cheer"
On the Andy Griffith Show the characters from Mayberry (modeled on Mount Airy NC) pronounce "here" as "cheer".
This can be heard at second 29 of Andy Griffith Football Story from ...
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3
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Which American dialect pronounces "heard" as "hu-yd"?
There is an American English dialect/accent that pronounces words like "heard" and "bird" as "hu-yd" and "bu-yd". One example of this would be CCR's song "...
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Are Canadianisms like "aboat" equally common on the American side of the border, adjacent to it?
Most Canadians live close the the border. If you cross to the American side of border, in a rural area, do Canadianisms (1) like "aboat" (2) suddenly become much less common?
Since this ...
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Can the idiom "fall off the wagon" be said to be "chiefly American"?
I read an answer on another site which referred to the idiom of falling off the wagon as being "chiefly American". That got me curious since I would have thought that this particular idiom ...
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2
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A north country question: is Varmint the root of Warm 'un?
I would like to examine the proposition that the Yorkshire and north country term warm ‘un may derive from the word varmint.
I was brought up in south Yorkshire and often heard children referred to as ...
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5
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Is there an English equivalent of the Scots usage of "boak" (meaning retch) as a noun?
"Boak" is a Scots word that means "retch" (or vomit), and like retch it can be used as a verb, i.e. "that makes me want to boak" means "that makes me want to retch&...
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“One syllable” words ending in -re
I’m an American (in upper Midwest) teaching my child about one-syllable words ending in Silent E, such as kite, which makes gives first vowel a long vowel sound. You might know these as VCe syllables (...
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Variant of English pronunciation in the UK
On YouTube, I noticed a channel "RateMyTakeaway" with a man with interesting pronunciation
One example, at 1:26 in this video:
https://youtu.be/Z7YM7iYtFRY?t=86
He says (as far as I can ...
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2
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Using 'would' instead of 'will'
I know there are questions with similar titles, but I've checked and they aren't asking what I'm asking.
I've recently started working with a guy from Nigeria, and in our discussions I've found myself ...
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0
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How many allophones possible of phoneme /ə/ are there in American English?
I am an ESL student. I want to speak American English fluently.
Due to influence of my local dialect in my country, I only discover that there is [ə ɐ ɪə ɑ] doubtably according to my ear, and native ...
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1
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When did the California Vowel Shift begin?
When did the California Vowel Shift begin: as soon as California was settled by English speakers? Or did it develop later?
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Dialectal variation in subtleties of usage of the word "sore"
I grew up in southern England, and now live in Scotland. There are many interesting and well-known quirks of usage that differ between Southern English English and the various Scottish dialects and ...
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"Yeap" and "yep" and "yeah" [duplicate]
Is the use of "Yeap" and "yep" and "yeah", more predominant in different English speaking countries, or is it more a matter of personal preference?
UPDATE: The ...
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2
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What does this bit of Cockney mean?
In the 2nd episode of the 3rd season of Would I Lie To You?, a fragment is shown from a 1985 episode of London Weekend Television's The Six O'Clock Show, with someone purporting to be a former Teddy ...
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Adverbial adjectives [duplicate]
Continuing from this question about a cloze reading test, in the construction
If a conversation starts angry, it will almost certainly continue angry.
or the song lyrics
Start angry... end mad...
...
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1
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Is it correct to pronounce the letter N as "ain" when spelling out words letter by letter?
I live in a non-English-speaking country. A lot of people around me pronounce the letter N as "ain" (/eɪn/ in IPA). I am very confused because in dictionaries the letter N can be only ...
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Dialect using "woman" instead of "women"?
If you watch this VICE episode, the presenter sounds like a native speaker, but uses "woman" instead of "women" every time (probably over a dozen times in the 10 minute video).
...
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Bibs & Bobs vs. Bits & Bobs [duplicate]
When I was a relative newcomer to Yorkshire, in the North of England, I was slightly annoyed when I heard people talking about 'bibs and bobs' (meaning odds and ends). I wanted to correct them by ...
1
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2
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649
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What is the trend in pronouncing the word "strength"? [closed]
Over the years, I have heard 3 different ways to pronounce the word strength:
stre(ng)kth /stɹɛŋkθ/
strenth /st̠͡ɹ̠ɛn̪θ/
shtrength /ʃtɹɛŋθ/
I definitely pronounce it with option 3 (shtrength /ʃtɹɛŋθ/...
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Do American and British English speakers understand the phrase ''to make a hames of sth''?
This phrase is used in Ireland (Hiberno English).
It means to make a mess of something. Interestingly enough, everyone in Ireland knows what this phrase means but very few actually know what a hames ...
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1
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Is drinking-jack another word for mug?
In "Tower of the Elephant", Robert E. Howard uses the word "drinking-jack" three times apparently meaning mug or something like that, judging by the context:
Torchlight licked ...
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0
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"Why wasn't ya"
In "Wrath of Man", a 2021 movie with Jason Statham as "H", he's being told "what you didn't hear, is that I was meant to be drivin' the truck that day" to which he ...
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