Dropping the Dialect
A colleague recently told me that she knew I was not from Toronto by the way I spoke. I am not sure if it is the accent or the word choice. Whatever the case, I am aware that people from my part of Ontario speak strangely. I only have to visit my rural relatives to be reminded of that.
It is not uncommon to have a conversation with my dad and hear him say:
"I done steaks on the bar-b-que last night."
"I ete an hour ago and I'm still hungry."
"We haven't ate yet."
"She don't like it."
"We have boughten bread."
"That's as useless as tits on a bull."
"I'll have a double-double"
"Let's go to Kentucky Duck" (That's KFC, or Kentucky Fried Chicken)
Listen to a few sounds files from Ontario here: International Dialects of English Archive - Ontario. They allow people to submit recordings, so maybe I will.
Also, people in my hometown are fond of the expression "fuck the dog" or "fucking the dog," which means slacking off or doing nothing. I am from Buttfuck nowhere, so I am allowed to say that.
Technorati Tags: dialects, rural Ontario, slang
13 comments:
Based on what you've stated the way your dad speaks, you would think they would sound like they were from the deep south. But listening to the Ontarians I would say they sound like they live in Northern Michigan and Wisconsin.
You're country folk sound much more educated than some of the southern folk here in the U.S., even the non-educated ones!
geez, I almost thought was hearing Newfoundland in some of those statements.
You can usually recognize people from Ottawa, they have a 'style'. Maybe that's just because I've always lived in the west?
Where I come from, some of the sayings are the same. But its buckfuck nowhere for us :-)
Giveaways that I'm "not from here":
I say "sneakers" instead of tennis shoes and "soda" instead of pop.
15 years ago when I lived in New Hampshire (I wasn't from there, either) someone who came into my place of employment said "You're not from here, are you?" after exchanging about ten words with me. Was it how I spoke, or the fact that he knew everyone who was "from here"?...I'll never know.
The International Dialects site is quite interesting...although the descriptions of the people contributing dialects read like online dating profiles:
"Caucasian female, 41 years of age. Born and raised in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. She is an Environmental Coordinator for the Canadian Federal Government."
You know, being Arzona-born and raised in the South, I've been told I speak "funny" way too often.
Dialect lessons helped, but now when I talk to Southern relatives my accent comes back for about two weeks.
Loved the site. Great linkage, man!
Fish - "about as useful as tits on a bull." is a very commen expression in Australia too.
"fuck the dog" - good grief! One can but wonder at the origins of that expression for laziness. The mind boggles.
JAson - I know quite a few country folk, highly educated, well spoken & now city dwellers, who revert to accented origins within moments of being "back home".
PS - we don't have "soda" or "pop" down here - it's "softdrink".
When a fellow grad student and I were in Montana last summer, we were told that she had a Canadian accent while I didn't. She's from Northern Ontario and I'm from Southern Ontario.
I think we sound the same.
I've heard of 'fuck the dog' too, and I wouldn't say I'm from rural Ontario.
I hadn't realized how colorful the accents get up in Canada. ;)
We say 'fuck the dog' where I work. I work in an aircraft factory in Toronto. I never heard the saying until I started working there.
Personally, I have a thing for chicks who say "aboot". As in, "What is this all aboot?"
In my neck of the woods the expression is "fucking the dog and selling the pups" Another one is "usless as the tits on a tin cow".The part of Ontario i live in was settled by the Scots-Irish and I have heard the expressions your dad used spoken by the older folks here.
I prefer screwing the pooch to f*cking the dog, but that's just me.
I mean, as a saying of course.
At a previous job in our billing system there were all these #'d codes to mean different types of work done for the client. Code K9000 was for 'screwing the pooch' :-D
I'm from the Ottawa Valley so have some of the accent I'm told. The one that seems to bug people the most is I say film as if it was filim or something? I don't really hear it myself.
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