Questions tagged [dialects]
This tag is for questions related to mutually intelligible variations within a language.
669 questions
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Are the words "Aural" and "Oral" homophones?
Are the words "Aural" and "Oral" usually pronounced the same? Does it vary by dialect? Are there strategies that people use to differentiate them when listening to spoken English?
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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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“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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What is the meaning and use of "seh" in Caribbean dialects of English?
I have heard "seh" used in Jamaican English but I think it's probably used in other parts of the Caribbean too. I know that in many cases, it is simply the equivalent of standard English "say". ...
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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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What dialect is "You wants I should do it for ya?"
I heard this phrasing in an episode of a TV show, but I can't remember what for the life of me. I just remember how weird it sounded, because no one else talked like that in the series?
It was a ...
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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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Regional pronunciation of “calliope”?
I’m watching Auction Kings and a lady from Atlanta (who does not have much of a southern US accent) is putting a calliope up for auction. What caught my attention was the way she pronounce it: /...
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The distinction between "over there" and "over yonder."
For most native English speakers the word 'yonder' is either archaic or poetic. For many native speakers in the Southern United States however, it is still a word in common but declining use. Those ...
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What does "nine while nine" mean?
In "Nine While Nine" by The Sisters of Mercy there is this line:
Nine while nine and I'm waiting for the train...
What does "nine while nine" actually mean? I've never encountered anything similar ...
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Is "prepone" being used outside India?
Prepone is a great word - it's the opposite of postpone. When you prepone a meeting, you change its scheduled time so that it occurs sooner than originally planned. Has this usage spread beyond India? ...
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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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When quoting a speaker of another English dialect, should you spell things his way?
I realize (or realise?) I may be splitting hairs here, but I find this question interesting, and I’ve never heard or seen it discussed before.
I was about to post a quote from Rich Hickey outside my ...
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Is bad English called "Butler English"?
When somebody speaks bad English it is called Butler English in India. The phrase Butler English seems to have originated in Madras presidency in the British Rule. The butlers or the maid servants ...
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What is the origin of "six" as a word to refer to the toilet?
A common euphemism for the toilet in the spoken Welsh of north Wales is "lle chwech", literally "six place" ("chwech" being "six" in Welsh). Note this refers mainly to the room rather than the ...
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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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Is there a difference in meaning between "fill {something} in" and “fill {something} out” in American English?
Is there a subtle or significant difference in meaning between the following?
fill something in
fill something out
In my humble opinion, the two expressions are interchangeable and both ...
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Welcome travelers and locals to your premises
"Welcome travelers and locals to your premises."
I believe that sentence would be understood by Australian/NZ people. I'm just checking, is that something an American would understand and ...
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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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Pronunciation of “master” and “plaster” in Northern England
A pattern I've noticed in Northern England is that people of my age (born in the '90s) pronounce words like “master” and “plaster” with a short A (/a/), whereas anyone of my parents' generation (born ...
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Origin of "I seen" construct?
I live in western Pennsylvania, US, and over the years I've heard quite a few natives use "I seen" instead of "I saw" or "I have seen", as in:
I seen that movie.
I seen him leave.
I haven't ...
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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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Fantastic and fantastical
In my own idiolect, "fantastic" can mean "having fantasy elements" or, metaphorically, "very good," while "fantastical" can only have the literal sense. So, for instance, a fairy tale might be "...
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Etymology of using of “to favor” to mean “to resemble”, “to take after”
I know that in at least some North American dialects,
favor as a verb can be used colloquially to
indicate that two people share a similar physical
appearance, especially when the two look so similar
...
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What does "thy" mean?
I read a sentence containing the word thy, but I cannot find the meaning of that word.
Is it older English, or is it still used in contemporary English today?
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Mizzle and drizzle
Mizzle is a dialect word for drizzle.
Where and how often is it used?
Please read the sentence I have found:
There's mizzling and there's drizzle.
As far as I know, mizzle and drizzle mean the ...
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Is there an American English dialect that sounds as "distingushed" as British English?
Obviously there are a lot of subjective words in the question. There are dialects of British English that don't sound distinguished at all (Cockney). Also, what sounds distinguished is somewhat (...
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Why do I pronounce "horrible" so harrhibly?
With Friends Like These
A few months ago, a couple good friends brought up a topic they know I disdain, and kept prodding me for my opinion on it. They wouldn't let up, until finally I proclaimed "[...
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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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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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Can 'revert' be used as a synonym of 'reply'?
I am a native speaker of American English, and I have only ever heard this usage of the word revert from one person. This person is not a native English speaker (he is from India), so he may just be ...
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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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"Be like" usage
Of late, I have been noticing a lot of casual memes floating around, particularly on Facebook, that involve this phrase. Typical constructs could be like the following examples:
B*&^%$# be like....
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Which variant of English should I use when my target audience is the world?
I know that all variants of English (American English, British English, etc.) can be generally understood by everybody who knows any of the English variants. However, there are some regionalisms that ...
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Do "multiple choice" questions always have only one correct answer?
In most dictionary definitions it seems that "multiple choice" questions actually refer to questions where only one "correct" answer among several choices is expected to be chosen (...
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"It is" used as "there is": what is the origin?
Ok, this is a somewhat nonstandard English question. In the Southern US, or at least in Central Virginia, there is an idiomatic use of the phrase it is that is equivalent to the expression there is, ...
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"Successfull"/"successful" — is this a UK/US difference? [closed]
I would tend to write double-l, but Google gives me more single-l, so I'm guessing it's an Atlantic divide thing.
And I guess all the other *full words.
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Can "raise a point" and "make a point" mean the same thing generally? [closed]
I personally think "to raise a point" means "to mention some point of interest" while "to make a point" means "to state or demonstrate something of particular ...
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a' the world's gang agley
Toward the close of her life she was greatly troubled at any unusual
stir in the household. She liked to have company, but nothing
disturbed her more than to have a man working in the cellar, putting
...
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"School Students" — what, like there's any other kind of student?
I think this might be a Pennsylvania thing: every so often, you'll see a van or small bus labeled, not "School Bus" or anything sane normal like that, but "School Students".
Whenever I see a van like ...
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What does the phrase ‘back the road’ mean?
Could someone explain to me the meaning of the phrase ‘back the road’ in the following sentence: “My father still lives back the road past the weir in the cottage I was reared in”?
Does it mean ‘next ...
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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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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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What's with the 'heigth' pandemic?
Recently I've noticed that many people are pronouncing the word 'height' as
/haiθ/
That's right, heigth.
I've only ever heard this pronunciation mistake in the last few years. Maybe it's just an ...
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The times they are a-changin'
I have always been intrigued by the word usage in the title of this Bob Dylan song. Wikipedia mentions that the song was influenced by Irish and Scottish ballads:
Dylan recalled writing the song as ...
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What American English dialect has "et" as the past tense of "eat"?
In several books and TV shows, there have been characters who say "et" instead of "ate" (As in, "I et dinner yesterday at 6:00"). I looked it up on Wiktionary, which ...
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Collective nouns with plural verbs: the 'American practice/s' versus the 'British practice/s'
"The group are all here."
The British seem more inclined to use a plural verb ("are") in sentences like this than Americans are.
At some time in the past it struck me that there are some singular ...
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Is cow ever the plural of cow?
I was thinking about ruminants, as you do, and I noticed that, unlike with sheep or deer, cows is the plural of cow. I started wondering why, then it occurred to me that maybe there were dialects that ...
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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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What is the origin of the phrase "buck naked"?
The phrase buck naked is well known and means "completely naked". It is synonymous to butt naked and stark naked, both self-explanatory. However, there are a few confusing aspects to the ...
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