Questions tagged [dialects]
This tag is for questions related to mutually intelligible variations within a language.
669 questions
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What is the factual basis for "pirate speech"? (Did pirates really say things like "shiver me timbers"?)
The "pirate speech" we hear/see/read, for example, on the website Talk Like A Pirate Day consists of a rhotic dialect characterized by phrases like "shiver me timbers," "ooh arh me hearties," and so ...
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24
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"Lunch" vs. "dinner" vs. "supper" — times and meanings?
I've seen cases where a noon-time meal is referred to as dinner, and the evening meal is called supper. There's also lunch around noon followed by dinner in the evening. Is there a particular ...
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Central Pennsylvanian English speakers: what are the limitations on the "needs washed" construction?
In the Central Pennsylvania dialect of English (and possibly elsewhere), the following construction is possible:
This car needs washed. (=needs to be washed)
The room needs cleaned. (=needs to ...
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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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Is "act like a mensch" too localized for ELU readers (U.S. and/or British English)?
This question was motivated by an interesting comment that was made at https://academia.stackexchange.com/posts/comments/123681?noredirect=1
Part of Answer: I don't think that particular research ...
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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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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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"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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Is 'useable' preferred in certain regions, or just an alternate spelling of 'usable'?
I rarely use spell checkers, but today when I did use one, it suggested changing the word 'useable' to 'usable' (i.e. to drop the first 'e'). This seemed immediately intuitive and I thought I'd just ...
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Is “might could” a correct construct?
I have a friend from the southern U.S. who uses the phrase “might could” quite often. He’ll say, for example:
I might could do that this weekend.
When I first heard him say this, it made me do a ...
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Regional dialect or just improper grammar? Eating on leftovers or just eating leftovers
On several occasions I have heard white people from the deep south part of the United States (Louisiana to Georgia) say that they will be eating ON leftovers, instead of just eating leftovers.
For ...
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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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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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What's the difference between a jumper, a pullover, and a sweater?
Following on from a recent question, in Australia we have the word jumper for a knitted long-sleeved garment, typically woollen.
When cosuming foreign media I always assumed the terms pullover and ...
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Dialects where days of the week end with "dee"?
Someone recently posted a question about the pronunciation of Wednesday, which reminded me of a different question about pronouncing the days of the week I've had floating around in my head for a ...
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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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Why is "ask" sometimes pronounced "aks"?
We've recently moved from New Zealand to New York City, and have noticed that many people (most of whom have good English) pronounce "ask" as "aks". For example:
Could you please go aks her ...
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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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How common is "thrice"?
Our proofreader, a native speaker of American English, just won't let me use this word. Every single time I try to sneak it onto one of our sites, she replaces it with three times. Now, I do realize ...
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In what region is "thou", etc. used in dialect?
My mother often uses words like "thou", "thy", and "thine" in everyday speech. A typical example is:
"Thou art a jammy bugger!"
She is from the north of England. I'm wondering whether this quirk ...
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"Bad with something" or "bad at something"?
In a question on Spanish.StackExchange, a question came up about expressing that you are bad at remembering or doing something. Is one "bad at something" or "bad with something" (nouns)? What about "...
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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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Using "dear", "darling", or "honey" to address a friend
As far as I know dear, darling, and honey are commonly used between lovers, but I suppose there are more words like that. What else is commonly used?
Which of these can be used to address a (close/...
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Is there such a thing as Intrusive-L (as opposed to Intrusive-R)?
Most of us have heard plenty of examples of the so-called Intrusive-R. It is a feature of non-rhotic dialects, including British RP and some New England dialects. It occurs between two vowels that are ...
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Where do accents and dialects come from?
Why do people in different areas speak differently? Where do accents come from, how do they change and/or survive over time and why do we have them?
Reading recommendations on this topic would be ...
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"Season" vs. "series"
TV shows, other than ones that have new episodes year-round (e.g. news, soaps), typically group episodes in batches — most often per year, although not necessarily calendar years, and sometimes there ...
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When is it appropriate to use the original pronunciation of a foreign word versus the English pronunciation?
When reading to an audience, or speaking in conversation, when is it appropriate to use the original pronunciation of a foreign word versus the English pronunciation (assuming you know the appropriate ...
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Differences between "sledge", "sleigh" and "sled"
Is there a difference between a sledge, a sleigh and a sled?
Dictionary definitions suggest they are synonymous, but it certainly sounds wrong to refer to Santa Claus on a sledge.
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Saying “today morning” to mean “this morning”
As an American, I use the term this morning, but I’ve noticed some Asian Indian coworkers who always say today morning to mean what I mean by this morning.
Is this an Indian English “dialectism”? Is ...
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Which is correct: "standing on line" or "standing in line"?
I'm curious to hear from folks in the the Northeast United States (or anyone, really) an explanation of why "standing on line" seems preferable to "standing in line" in the US northeast.
I imagine ...
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Is “I’ve boughten many vinyls” correct in its use of “boughten”?
Per Merriam-Webster (https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/is-boughten-a-word) boughten is an adjective.
According to my non-native-English-speaking friend the sentence "I've boughten ...
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What is the difference between "curd" and "yogurt"?
Most people use the words curd and yogurt interchangeably.
Both are made by fermenting milk.
Is there a difference between the two, or are they the same?
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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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"The thing is, is that..."
This is a phrase I've heard many people use, and it sounds wrong to me; e.g.:
The thing about that is, is that she might take it the wrong way.
It seems to treat "The thing [...] is"—the entire ...
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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 this Peter Sellers sentence mean?
What does the sentence mean which Peter Sellers is here quoting from his grandad?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mbUdsQfSq0&t=294s
(I refer to the sentence he says immediately after you start ...
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Why is a woman's purse called a "pocketbook"?
It's not a book, and it doesn't fit in anyone's pocket. Why does my brother-in-law insist on calling his wife's purse a pocketbook?
I'm interested in the etymology, and in the chronological and ...
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Could "them" mean "those"?
Background
Nowadays, I see "them" used to mean "those" a lot. I don't know if it was as common in the past.
For example, take "one of them people".
On researching about ...
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Non-rhotic dialects and intrusive r
I am from New England (northeastern US) and it's my understanding that we have a non-rhotic dialect in this region, which is unusual compared to the rest of the US.
It is common to drop the final r ...
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Southern Dialect: Word for a time of day?
I remember reading a story somewhere that a Southerner wrote about one of his life experiences. He mentioned that in the region he lived there was a time of day that cooled off a large amount in less ...
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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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Origin of the phrase "crazy as a coon"—is it racist?
Encountered most recently in the Procol Harum song "Lime Street." Does the phrase refer to a raccoon, or is the word here used in the sense of the slur?
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In what dialects does "often" rhyme with "soften"?
I believe in most English dialects soften is pronounced without a t sound. In some dialects, often is similar, but in others a t sound is quite evident in often.
I'm interested not only in which ...
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"Checking" vs. "chequing" vs. "chequeing" with regards to types of bank accounts
I came across this little dilemma when looking up the incorrectly spelled word "chequing" in my web browser's dictionary (Opera). According to the different dictionaries you can select in Opera:
EN ...
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What's the difference between "good on you" vs. "good for you", with a sincere meaning something like "you've done a good thing"?
In the northeastern USA I usually hear "good for you," as in
You passed the test? Good for you! [congrats]
Good for you, for stopping to help! [you are a good person]
Online I often see ...
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"Bring" vs. "take" in American English
English (other than American English) has a clear differentiation between the two words. Both are about translocating something. In "bring" the something of somebody is moved to where the speaker is ...
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Hwat, hwere, and hwy?
In which English accents do they put an h before every word that starts with wh?
Example from Youtube. Notice his pronunciation of whisky.
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-sen for -self in English: history and usage
In my class there is a gentleman from the north of England who uses "-sen" instead of "-self" in such words as "himself" ("himsen") and "myself" ("mysen").
As far as I can tell, he always uses "-sen" ...
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What's this tense called: "I been done ate"?
Growing up in a Black family in the US, I frequently heard people have conversations like this:
Mom: Have you eaten yet?
Kid: Yeah, Mom, I been done ate.
Wife: Have you fixed the sink yet?
Husband:...
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