Wherein we ask each other dialect questions we don't quite understand

Morrus · Jun 9, 2015

This might be a fun thread. Ask any dialect/vocabulary related question that you want to know the answer to, probably could look up but never did, and feel like getting a quick explanation from your friends at EN World.

Ask anything you like. Answer questions you know the answer to. Be nice - just because there are things in the world not exactly like the things right where you are right now or people who don't speak exactly the same way as you do doesn't mean they're better or worse. Our differences should be enjoyed. It'd be rubbish if we all sounded liked identical robots when we spoke!

I'll start. In US movies I often hear an event called "Homecoming" referred to in relation to schools. What is it, and where are they coming home from?

Dannyalcatraz · Jun 9, 2015

It usually marks the point in the fall of the school year when alumni are invited "back home" to visit their school.

It also is often connected to the point in a season when a school team- usually football, but other sports like basketball, hockey or soccer, depending on regional tastes- has played its last home game.

Umbran · Jun 9, 2015

Morrus said:
I'll start. In US movies I often hear an event called "Homecoming" referred to in relation to schools. What is it, and where are they coming home from?

Homecoming is a tradition in high schools and colleges, in which they welcome back alumni for a visit. It is usually the first school-wide social event in the academic year - usually in September or October.

Though, my understanding isn't that it is for the last home game, but instead for the game after the longest road trip the team has to make in the season, so the team is also coming home, you see.

Dannyalcatraz · Jun 9, 2015

Probably depends on the particular season, since schedules can vary year-to-year.

Bullgrit · Jun 9, 2015

Is there a noticeable Welsh accent? I can identify an English, a Scottish, and an Irish accent by hearing them, but although I've occasionally heard someone identified as Welsh, I have no idea if a Welsh accent is any different than an English one.

Bullgrit

Morrus · Jun 9, 2015

Bullgrit said:
Is there a noticeable Welsh accent? I can identify an English, a Scottish, and an Irish accent by hearing them, but although I've occasionally heard someone identified as Welsh, I have no idea if a Welsh accent is any different than an English one.

Bullgrit

Very much so. It's a lilting, almost sing-song accent. I really like it. There are dozens of very different English accents, too - Cockney, Liverpool, RP (the one you probably think of as English), West Country, Birmingham, Geordie, etc., all very different to one another.

I know what you mean, though. In the US I can differentiate "general Southern" and "New York" if they're pronounced, but little else, though I understand there are far more. I can't distinguish US and Canadian accents from each other - is that typical?

Bullgrit · Jun 9, 2015

US vs. Canadian accents -- I've met people whom I didn't know were from Canada until they directly stated it. So although I've heard a Canadian accent portrayed in media, I haven't notice it in any real life interactions. They just sound "Northern".

As for just US accents -- Southern, Northern, Mid-western, Texan, and maybe Californian might be the only ones easily identifiable without the accent being particularly strong or the speaker using local terms or slang. I live in the South, but all my career I've worked with people from all over the country (and world), and I'm finding it harder to identify a particular US accent. My sons were born and are being raised in the South, but to my ears, they have very little Southern accent. (My youngest sometimes laughs at my "y'all".)

Bullgrit

Scott DeWar · Jun 9, 2015

I have cousins from Minnesota that sound like what is portrayed as Canadian.Certain parts of California have a particular accent, but others have no accent.

Olgar Shiverstone · Jun 9, 2015

Watch for the long vowels. Pronouncing "about" as "aboot" is a dead giveaway for most Canadians I've met.

Outside of Val-speak (like, fer sure, no way!) I'm not familiar with a California accent, and I'm a native (southern) Californian -- curious what people identify as a California accent.

Now New England (especially Bawston!), New Yawker, Bal'mer (hun!) mid-Atlantic, the general Southern twang, generic central Midwestern, Yooper-Upper-Midwest, hard Texas twang ... thems I'll give ya.

In English English (British English? UK English? Who owns English?) it's the mixed common terms that get me. The pants-trousers divide is particularly humorous; chips-crisps has caused me frustration; I never know what I'm getting if offered a biscuit; and corn-maize has me downright bumfoozled.

Scott DeWar · Jun 9, 2015

Re: California accent. There is a particular cadence. I can't put my finger on it though.

Wherein we ask each other dialect questions we don't quite understand

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator

Umbran

Mod Squad

Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator

Bullgrit

Adventurer

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Bullgrit

Adventurer

Scott DeWar

Prof. Emeritus-Supernatural Events/Countermeasure

Olgar Shiverstone

Legend

Scott DeWar

Prof. Emeritus-Supernatural Events/Countermeasure

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