Comments on: The good ole south

By: natedog

natedog — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:18:46 +0000

if ya’ll dont like Texas, GTFO

By: etiii

etiii — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:40:39 +0000

e.t. has no accent, only mind-meld. (here in Guam, we make fun of everybodies language!)

By: WistfulD

WistfulD — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:18:29 +0000

Everyone has an accent. That’s the point of the concept of an accent. It just so happens that the Kansas accent was chosen by accident to be the ‘neutral ground’ accent that cross state communication gravitated towards (I’m a historian type who is into the development of the cross state national radio network of the 20th century, can I bore you to death with a bunch of facts you care nothing about?).

By: WistfulD

WistfulD — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:04:12 +0000

Everyone has an accent. Interestingly, if you live in the midwest, AND live in a large city (Such as me, I live in Minneapolis and sound like Tom Brokow), you tend to lose the accent and start having that meeting-at-the-middle non-accent that national newscasters pick up (except Dan Rather, what’s up with that?). BUT, if you live on the coasts, the larger the city you live in, the greater an accent you have (ever talked to anyone from New York? Yeah. Two people living four blocks away have different accents. I’m not sure what the social phenomenon that drives this is, but it’s kinda cool.

By: WistfulD

WistfulD — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:57:47 +0000

Seriously man, if there’s a U.S. president that was secretly God working in disguise, it was Teddy R. He was James Bond multiplied by Batman, exponentialed to the power of Malcolm Reynolds.

By: MeggieMugs

MeggieMugs — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:26:26 +0000

If really want to go to a place with no accent, Ohio is the place to go. They have the least dialectal frills when it comes to American English. If you think about the recorded voice of a lady you get on phones, especially for “the number you have dialed…,” she’s from Ohio.

By: BurritoCzar

BurritoCzar — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:04:11 +0000

Blade? I think you mean plate.

By: yyz113

yyz113 — Thu, 07 May 2009 10:28:56 +0000

they took our jobs!

By: Sticky

Sticky — Thu, 07 May 2009 06:45:44 +0000

@nyokki:
Surely you’ll vouch for Kansans having no accent?

By: nyokki

nyokki — Thu, 07 May 2009 06:30:35 +0000

@AliceH: It was an extreme example, true nonetheless. The basic belief system is the same, they're just more vocal and clearly insane. I'll just go ahead and include Ted Haggard, Jerry Fawell, Pat Robertson and co. @Puulaahi: No accent? Please say you were being sarcastic...

By: velador

velador — Thu, 07 May 2009 05:14:22 +0000

@dieAntagonista:

uhum, ich bin ein deutscher, aber ich wohne bei den amis.
ich muss mehr deutsch reden da ich der meinung bin des es sich in letzter zeit recht anrostet.

ich habe mir eine tuete deutsch gekauft, und fast alles vergessen…

ja, das waere sehr schade….

By: Sticky

Sticky — Thu, 07 May 2009 04:46:19 +0000

@Puulaahi: I can tell you if you do. I've got a good ear for accents. :p

By: Puulaahi

Puulaahi — Thu, 07 May 2009 04:34:30 +0000

@Sticky: I've had my number for sometime...

By: Puulaahi

Puulaahi — Thu, 07 May 2009 04:33:41 +0000

@Sticky:@dieAntagonista: We have no accents in California too. But we do have a way of saying things that sounds different than other parts of the country. Cali is heavy on the slang, no matter what part you visit. Kind of a big state. But so is Texas. I don't think I have an accent. Perhaps you can tell me if I do dieA.

By: Sticky

Sticky — Thu, 07 May 2009 04:31:10 +0000

@Puulaahi: Take a number, there's a lot of us here. XD

By: Puulaahi

Puulaahi — Thu, 07 May 2009 04:29:14 +0000

@dieAntagonista: I want to hear your *naive* sweet voice. You're driving me nutzo lady. *sigh*

By: sailboats

sailboats — Thu, 07 May 2009 03:43:43 +0000

@caeslus:
Yeah, the Muslim name for god is Allah. The Christian name for god is Jehovah…but from my experience is that most Christians think god revers to their own no matter what the circumstance is.

I see a lot of comments about Bush vs Obama…I think a bigger issue here would be the fact that Obama isn’t a Muslim…not that it should matter.

By: AliceH

AliceH — Thu, 07 May 2009 03:04:56 +0000

@nyokki: Fred Phelps and his gang are a group unto themselves. Don't insult evangelical Christians by lumping the Phelpses in with them, and I won't insult Democrats by lumping the Phelpses in with them. Well, OK, I will, but only because it's true and because Manbearpig embraced Fred Phelps and his brand of crayzee. AFAIK, no group other than the Phelpses go around picketing funerals.

By: Sticky

Sticky — Thu, 07 May 2009 02:53:28 +0000

@dieAntagonista: Ironically, you post the accent part after I opened this window, officially making me psychic.

By: Sticky

Sticky — Thu, 07 May 2009 02:51:15 +0000

@dieAntagonista: If you need to get a flat base on which to base your English, Kansas is your best bet. We literally HAVE NO ACCENT. That's why Kansans/other midwesterners make excellent newscasters.

By: dieAntagonista

dieAntagonista — Thu, 07 May 2009 02:46:25 +0000

Oh and while my writings in English are acceptable, I’m afraid I haven’t mastered speaking it.
I have a terrible naive sounding accent, still. And you know how they say that an accent is a sign that you’re not %100 good at that specific language yet.

Also, I have trouble pronouncing words like, “months”, “truth”, “write” and other things.

Which is why at school, I end up saying things like, “I went on vacation for 62 days” and nonsense like that.

I’ll figure it out. Sooner or later. Grrr.

By: dieAntagonista

dieAntagonista — Thu, 07 May 2009 02:39:18 +0000

@nyokki:

Your brain. It’s very appealing to me.

I see, that’s some heavy stuff indeed. But to be honest, fundamentalist evangelicals sounds like a paradox to me. Granted, people here would never do anything like that, the only radical ones are the Catholics. The Evangelicals though, are some of the sweetest people I have ever met. I used to live next to the only Evangelical church in town. The priest there would always invite me to have dinner with his family, because he knew I was alone at home. None of the Catholics would have ever done that, invite a little dark haired heathen girl to their house.

Yeah damn right I will love America. I’m so certain I will, it’s almost disgusting. See I’m glad you said that, it’s a little depressing, talking with Americans about America. Although it just goes to show that you’re not pretentious like so many people pretend you are.
And I can absolutely imagine that you’re forgiving of foreigners who butcher your language. We already talked about the beauty of English. And in your country, in every corner you get to hear different accents and slang, right. Which I’m dying to hear. Variety like that doesn’t even make it possible to be arrogant about it.
I haven’t been to France or Britain yet, but that too sounds believable.

It’s way different with German speaking people. The German language is so close to perfection, that everyone here is extremely arrogant about it. Not only do they ridicule foreigners who butcher it, but even people from the countryside, if they’re say, city people. And vice versa, of course. It’s ridiculous, but I can’t deny that I enjoy even that. It made me work really hard to be the best at German. Pressure is a funny thing.

Haha all right I should stop now. That was my language/ America rant of the day.

By: garbledxmission

garbledxmission — Thu, 07 May 2009 02:01:19 +0000

Texas itself is OK. The cockroaches there are enormous and not so cool.

By: nyokki

nyokki — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:21:01 +0000

Also, though it may not seem so at times, we are extremely forgiving of foreigners that butcher our language, obviously not a concern in your case. I’ve noticed that many people in other countries disdain those (especially Americans) that try, and fail, to speak in their language. France and Britain are notable for it.

By: nyokki

nyokki — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:15:51 +0000

Hey mach dir mal keine Sorgen. Christen sind wirklich nicht so schlimm, nur Kardinale und andere reiche Pseudo-Christen…
machen das wahrscheinlich, aber die meisten sind auch nicht viel schlimmer als andere Leute

Yes they can be. We’ve got fundamentalist evangelicals here. These are the same people that show up at funerals of service wo/men to protest against gays.

In all seriousness though, you would love America. I’ve lived in and visited a lot of countries and states (w/in the US) and we are the most open and friendliest people I’ve ever met. We really don’t care where you came from, what religion (or lack thereof) you are. If you like us, we’ll love you.