Days of the Week....Kansas City/Missouri indigenous maybe?
Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:52 pm
My parents were both born in Kansas City, Missouri...father in 1927, mother in 1931. They moved to a suburb of Kansas City on the Kansas side circa 1953. They have lived in some suburb of Kansas City on the Ks side since then.
This is the way my parents recite the days of the week (note: NOT IPA ...simply a reasonable American English phonetic set)
Monday - /Mu'n-dee/
Tuesday - /T'ews-dee/
Wednesday -/W'ins-dee/
Thursday -/Th'urs-dee/
Friday - /Fr'y-dee/
Saturday -/S'air-dee/
Sunday - /S'un-dee/
My father answers the phone by saying "hello" as follows:
"mmmmmmmmmmmmm..yell'ow" . Nobody else except him and his father say this, as far as I know.
When my father says "yeah", it is indeed one syllable, but there is a trailing "l" on the end or even embeded...hard to represent...almost sounds like "yealh" or close to "yeeal".
Unfortunately, I find myself saying this odd "yealh" even though I can't seem to transcribe it into print very well. Sometimes it is fine for the receiver, but sometimes I simply get a fish-eyed look...maybe even recipients might be hearing that I say "yowl" or something. (I live in Colorado Front Range currently).
My mother says she has to "warsh" the clothes, but I say it as /wahsh/.
As far as the above, I sometimes catch myself saying /M'un-dee/ and /T'ews-dee/ as above, but the rest of the days of the week sound civilized.
I say "reckon" alot.....hmmm, maybe that qualifies me as British ...I think that may be a Midland feature. None of us is ever "fixin' " to do anything, which is fortunate.
I definitely say "kinda" and "sorta", which almost sounds Minnesotan. But I do not straddle the fence and make non-commital type statements otherwise in my conversation.
Probably the 'yealh' thing is the worst for me and sometimes instead of "Well, it's time to wrap it up", I will say "Whelp, it's time to wrap it up", which sounds like I am talking to some litter of animals.
I took the dialect test on this site and I scored (without ambiguity in the questions except for Mary, merry..etc all sounding the same). It came out nearly all the bar on South was populated, followed by about a three quarter bar filled for Philadelphia, a two thirds bar filled for the Inland North, half bar for Northeast, one third bar for West, and miniscule for Boston and North Central. I was classified as Midwest.
Anyway, I was wondering if others have run across the weekdays being said the same way and also this strange yeah sound and the way my father answers the phone...is it uniquely "Missouri", uniquely "Kansas" or unique to the entire planet? Just curious; Thanks.
This is the way my parents recite the days of the week (note: NOT IPA ...simply a reasonable American English phonetic set)
Monday - /Mu'n-dee/
Tuesday - /T'ews-dee/
Wednesday -/W'ins-dee/
Thursday -/Th'urs-dee/
Friday - /Fr'y-dee/
Saturday -/S'air-dee/
Sunday - /S'un-dee/
My father answers the phone by saying "hello" as follows:
"mmmmmmmmmmmmm..yell'ow" . Nobody else except him and his father say this, as far as I know.
When my father says "yeah", it is indeed one syllable, but there is a trailing "l" on the end or even embeded...hard to represent...almost sounds like "yealh" or close to "yeeal".
Unfortunately, I find myself saying this odd "yealh" even though I can't seem to transcribe it into print very well. Sometimes it is fine for the receiver, but sometimes I simply get a fish-eyed look...maybe even recipients might be hearing that I say "yowl" or something. (I live in Colorado Front Range currently).
My mother says she has to "warsh" the clothes, but I say it as /wahsh/.
As far as the above, I sometimes catch myself saying /M'un-dee/ and /T'ews-dee/ as above, but the rest of the days of the week sound civilized.
I say "reckon" alot.....hmmm, maybe that qualifies me as British ...I think that may be a Midland feature. None of us is ever "fixin' " to do anything, which is fortunate.
I definitely say "kinda" and "sorta", which almost sounds Minnesotan. But I do not straddle the fence and make non-commital type statements otherwise in my conversation.
Probably the 'yealh' thing is the worst for me and sometimes instead of "Well, it's time to wrap it up", I will say "Whelp, it's time to wrap it up", which sounds like I am talking to some litter of animals.
I took the dialect test on this site and I scored (without ambiguity in the questions except for Mary, merry..etc all sounding the same). It came out nearly all the bar on South was populated, followed by about a three quarter bar filled for Philadelphia, a two thirds bar filled for the Inland North, half bar for Northeast, one third bar for West, and miniscule for Boston and North Central. I was classified as Midwest.
Anyway, I was wondering if others have run across the weekdays being said the same way and also this strange yeah sound and the way my father answers the phone...is it uniquely "Missouri", uniquely "Kansas" or unique to the entire planet? Just curious; Thanks.