Plurals

A forum for discussing US dialects (accents).
scw1217
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Plurals

Postby scw1217 » Sun Jan 22, 2006 9:19 pm

forutunately for me, I avoid using Southern plurals. However, I have family that do not. They routinely eat chicken breastes or beef roastes. (breast-ez, with a z sound). When questioned they say, No that is not correct. Then turn around and add in wastes, askes, and my personal favorite testes. This one coming from a young relative who had to "take a school testes". Sent me for a jump! Plurals being only the beginning for me of Southern faux pas. Another being sal-mons (pronouncing the l and the s). I have learned to keep a straight face!

KatyBr
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Re: Plurals

Postby KatyBr » Mon Jan 23, 2006 1:06 am

forutunately for me, I avoid using Southern plurals. However, I have family that do not. They routinely eat chicken breastes
lol testes....
That is not just in the south. It's all over. sigh.

Kt

Stargzer
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Re: Plurals

Postby Stargzer » Mon Jan 23, 2006 1:20 am

. . . and my personal favorite testes. This one coming from a young relative who had to "take a school testes". . . .
I assume that was with a short 'e' at the end.

I had a high school teacher (at an all boys school) who once said before handing out an exam, "I am the testor; you are the testees." 8)
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

scw1217
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Re: Plurals

Postby scw1217 » Mon Jan 23, 2006 8:52 am

I assume that was with a short 'e' at the end.

I had a high school teacher (at an all boys school) who once said before handing out an exam, "I am the testor; you are the testees." 8)
Yes. And LOL @ testees. Given that she was about 10 at the time, that was what threw me when I heard it.

tcward
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Postby tcward » Mon Jan 23, 2006 10:28 am

I thought I'd heard about all there was to hear, growing up in rural (poor) North Carolina, and I've never heard that before, scw...

-Tim

scw1217
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Postby scw1217 » Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:01 pm

I thought I'd heard about all there was to hear, growing up in rural (poor) North Carolina, and I've never heard that before, scw...

-Tim
Then let me add in two other mispronounced words. Prostrate instead of prostate (this is reference to a male relative's illness. And my very favorite, dehyranated, instead of dehydrated.

You can see this has been bugging me for a while, since I have this nice list. lol.

Brazilian dude
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Postby Brazilian dude » Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:16 pm

I never knew someone who had his prostate was sick. I have mine, and I feel fine. :wink:

Brazilian dude
Languages rule!

Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:04 pm

I never knew someone who had his prostate was sick. I have mine, and I feel fine. :wink:

Brazilian dude
Maybe right now, but if you have trouble with it, you'll be sure to know. :wink:
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

KatyBr
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Postby KatyBr » Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:48 pm

BD wait about 40 years, lol. Then you'll know, and it's an adjective if used for a malady, not a noun. Prostate trouble, prostate cancer, etc. Or enlarged prostate, in any case it must have or be a qualifer, BD is right.

Kt

scw1217
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Postby scw1217 » Mon Jan 23, 2006 9:14 pm

BD wait about 40 years, lol. Then you'll know, and it's an adjective if used for a malady, not a noun. Prostate trouble, prostate cancer, etc. Or enlarged prostate, in any case it must have or be a qualifer, BD is right.

Kt
That being my point, only problem is they say p-r-o-s-t-R-a-t-e, which means to lie down.

KatyBr
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Postby KatyBr » Mon Jan 23, 2006 10:37 pm

Then there is the equally crazy palpate-palpatate thing.

Kt
I admit to using it wrong once and being corrected, :oops:
but then that's the whole thing with ignorance, we don't know, then we do and we say it correctly, right?

JJ
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Postby JJ » Mon Jan 23, 2006 11:36 pm

Hey, Boyzis...(Texican pl for boys)
and girls...

That's probably an East Coast/ Gulf Coast thang, though it might reach into MO and AR, but really, around here, in central TX, nobody pluralizes stuff like that, with the rare exception of a few mexicanos with grade-school English.

My deal is that I've heard more "yankee" gals say stuff like, "ik-scape" for escape, and "ik-setter-a" for etc., which is vexation of spirit...

But the real pisser is the MSM. That would be the mainstream media, or the "Nyuuuuze" as we hear it, saying
stuff like, "ne-go-see-ay-shunz," and they'll even screw with the verb, "ne-go-see-ate."

What's hail is them people is paid good money to say stuff like 'at...

Then there's the "valley girl" crap that has infected most females under 30 in this country. "He, ammm, like, cracked his hud, an' stuff..." (He sustained a head injury.) But that's a whole 'nother.

JJ :roll:

southernpride
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Postby southernpride » Fri Mar 03, 2006 6:25 pm

Hey ya'll,
Here in the deep South (yes, we capitalize the "S") you hear the word "alla" quite a bit for plurals. Example: I'm having a bonfire tonight for a friends birthday. I talked to a few buddies at work earlier and said "I'm trying to (pronounced similar to "china") get some some guys together for Cooter's birthday. Alla ya'll better be here."

On a different note, I find that my vocabulary adapts to the situation. My natural inclination is very Southern ( I scored a 100% on the yankee-Dixie test.) However, In some situations, I can use big ol' fancy words that generally are only used by yankees. If I am talking to one of my professors, I use scientific terms just as easily as they do. part of this may be because of my education (I was accepted to Yale, but unable to go for financial reasons.) On the other side of the spectrum, when I'm talking with my friends, anybody from yankee land would probably think we're speaking forein language (partly because of the accents, but also some phrases only used around these parts.)

Peace,
Bubba

chrissy
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Postby chrissy » Mon Apr 10, 2006 8:06 pm

I am half Yankee and half Redneck(I guess). My mom is from somewhere in Indiana and my dad is from a po-dunk town in southern Arkansas. I grew up knowing alot of my mom's way of talking rather than the redneck way and then I married one. I live in a small town, but I consider myself a city girl. When I met my ex-husband, it was a whole new world. There were over a dozen dogs, a shop that was bigger than the house and worst of all how pronounciation of things were just wrong!!!!! For example, war meant wire; tar meant tire; crick meant creek; far meant fire, etc. It was trip listening to them talk until I picked up their lingo because I couldn't get them into mine(there were more of them and they were bigger than me). What you hear in country songs, I lived them. The whole frickin' family lived on 5 acres. Jeff Foxworthy pegged my ex and his family just right. When stormy weather came the dad made the whole family go get under a bridge because he was afraid. What does anyone need with used tires? I quit counting after 100, there was just more and more being added, with the exception of about 10 being on to the roof of our trailer. Which I used to laugh at trailer houses with the tires on the roof, but you know that is a pretty good idea especially when the when rips across and under the metal roof. I never understood the old run down vehicles in the yard. They don't run, you bought new ones or newer ones, get rid of them. Thank God I don't deal with that anymore. Chrissy[/b]

AdoAnnie
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Postby AdoAnnie » Wed Apr 12, 2006 8:30 am

100% Dixie on my score and have a Texas drawl to prove it but there are still words that get to me.

Potable - from the word 'pote' and pronounced 'pote uble', but around here everyone says 'POT uble'.

Ambulance - mostly pronounced 'ama lance' or amba lance'

oh, and

Wrench - an injury to the ankle or the act of putting something in clear water to remove the suds

I love the English language, it is so easy to mangle!
The neighbors said that they knew the man who'd been shot for years.


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